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THE SUPREME LEADER 


A STUDY OF THE NATURE AND WORK 
OF THE HOLY SPIRER = 


BY a 
FRANCIS B. ‘DENIO, D. D. 


PROFESSOR IN BANGOR THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 


BOSTON 


Pilgrim Press 
CHICAGO 


ep ep eal 


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Copyright, 190% 


by 


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To the Memory of mp Mother 


WHOSE LIFE AND FAITH FIRST TAUGHT ME THE 
VALUE OF SUCH TRUTHS AS I HAVE TRIED 


TO SET FORTH IN THIS VOLUME 


*) 
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2 with funding 


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PREFACE 


This volume is the outcome of studies undertaken to 
solve problems which arose in connection with my duties 
as ateacher. In attempting to learn something respect- 
ing the extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit in the 
inspiration of the Old Testament prophets, I came to see 
the necessity of learning first the ordinary operations of 
the Holy Spirit. The study of this latter subject has 
shown me that our common life is filled with a glory 
half-veiled from our unseeing eyes. We need not ascend 
to heaven to bring the Spirit down, nor descend into the 
abyss to bring him up; he is nigh in Scripture, still giv- 
ing it life, and yet more, he is in all human life and rela- 
tions, giving them all the power and value which they 
have. 7 

A special reason for writing this volume lies in the 
fact that the Spirit’s leadership is often connected with 
only a few striking forms of evangelistic work. It is 
hoped that souls who have been led to regard the 
‘“‘power” of an evangelist as the one desirable form of 
the Spirit’s leadership may come to see how many other 
gifts come from him, and that they may come to see that 

other and desirable gifts are actually in their hands 
waiting to be used. 

In these days we are hoping and longing for some 
great increase in the power of the Gospel. New knowl- 


Vi PREFACE 


* 


edge of the truth and new insight into it have encour- 
aged us to look for some great advance on the part of 
the Church of Christ. Our greatest need is that of the 
sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit in the daily life of 
Christians. When we shall give ourselves up unre- 
servedly to the use of the sanctifying grace which he 
offers, the Church cannot but make an advance. 

I should have been helped in the preparation of this 
volume, if I could have studied some books which have 
appeared since the manuscript went to the printers. 
Worthy of especial mention are Walker’s 7he Spirzt and 
the Incarnation, Starbuck’s Psychology of Religion, Clark’s 
The Paraclete, and Inge’s Christian Mysticism.  Clear- 
ness of thought is assisted by sharp-cut statements in 
the last work such as “The purpose of the incarnation 
was to reveal the Father,’ “The purpose of the mission 
of the Comforter was to reveal ¢he Son.” Robertson’s 
Holy Spirit and Christian Service is an attractive title 
and the exposition is a helpful one. 

That this volume may help toward more efficient ser- 
vice of the Master is the prayer of the writer. 


JUNE, 1900. 


EPABEE OF CONTENES 


INTRODUCTION 


> LUDYAT 


THE BIBLICAL TEACHING RESPECTING THE SPIRIT OF 
GOD 
CHAPTER I. THE OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING 
Il. THe INTERMEDIATE LITERATURE 


III. THE TEACHING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 


SEU IOVOE 


WHAT CHRISTIANS HAVE LEARNED FROM THOUGHT AND 
EXPERIENCE 


CHAPTER I. DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT UNTIL 400 
A. D. 
Ie GHEE PERIOD 400 TO. 140004 Ds 
II]. THe PERIOD OF TRANSITION, 1400 TO 
Loo CAD: 
IV. THE CENTURY OF THE REFORMATION 
V. PERVERSIONS OF THE TRUTH . 
VI. PURITAN FAITH IN ENGLAND, 1600-1700 
VII. THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, 1700 TO 
1800 


VII. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ©. 


PAGE 


xI 


55 


58 
64 


68 
FL 
89 
93 


100 
106 


Vill TABLE OF CONTENTS 


SFUDY. III 
THE WORK AND THE PERSON OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
CHAPTER J. THE Hoy Spirit as Gop IMMANENT 
IN THE WORLD 


Il. THe Hoty SPIRIT AS THE AGENT MAK- 
ING EFFECTUAL THE PRIESTLY WORK 


OF JESUS CHRIST 


Ill.: THeE,- Hoty, SPIRIT “AS. THE AGENT: CAR= 


RYING ON THE PROPHETIC WORK OF 


JESUS CHRIST 

IV. THE Hoty Sprrit As THE AGENT CAR- 
RYING ON THE KINGLY WORK OF JESUS 
CHRIST. 

Vo - THe” Horry -SpPrrif | aA’ PERSON . IN)’ THE 


DEITY 


SEU Cae 
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND CHRISTIAN LIFE AND SERVICE 


CHAPTER I. NEED OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR EFFECT- 


IVE CHRISTIAN SERVICE 


II. THe MopEs IN WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT 
MAKES CHRISTIAN SERVICE EFFECTIVE 


AND THE VALUE OF THESE MODES 


Ill. THE EVIDENCE OF THE PRESENCE OF THE 
Hoy SpirRIT IN HUMAN LIFE ACCORD- 
ING TO THE CAPACITY AND NEEDS OF 


A PERSON 


11g 


120 


128 


147 


188 


209 


220 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 1X 


CHAPTERIV. THE CONDITIONS WHICH MUST BE FUL- 
FILLED IN ORDER THAT THE HOLY 
SPIRIT MAY BECOME OPERATIVE IN A 
HUMAN LIFE ACCORDING TO THE NEEDS 


AND CAPACITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL . 226 
APPENDIX . ; ; : : : _MZSO 


INDEX : ‘ : : : ae 


INTRODUCTION 


So far as the writer of this volume has any knowl- 
edge, the thoughtful reader of a book dealing with 
the subject of the Holy Spirit lays that volume down 
with a sense of disappointment. There is reason 
why this should be the case. It is a fact that Chris- 
tians commonly have a general impression that their 
religious life is dependent upon the Holy Spirit, but 
they have little knowledge which can be called pre- 
cise. They do not press on to learn the meaning of 
the teaching of Scripture by making the Spirit so 
thoroughly regnant in their lives that they can have 
the experience necessary for real knowledge. There- 
fore Christian experience in general is not sufficiently 
Christlike to enable those. who write upon the sub- 
ject to set forth a fully developed doctrine of the 
Holy Spirit. 

When the standard of life and thought in the dis- 
ciples of our Lord shall have become more like his 
own, when Christians shall have attained more com- 
plete knowledge of their experience by means of 
prolonged and patient reflection upon the facts of the 
entire sphere of man’s inner life, then a more ade- 
quate statement of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit 


Xl INTRODUCTION 


may be written. Until that time the discussions of 
the subject may help to open the eyes of Christians 
to the nature of their privileges and the conditions of 
these privileges, and also help to prepare the way for 
a discussion more worthy of the theme. 

It would be unjust to belittle the work of the past. 
The writings of the Greek and Latin Fathers of the 
fourth and fifth centuries must always remain a mine 
of wealth for him who would study the doctrine of 
the person of the Holy Spirit. The chief discussions 
on the subject begin with the letters of Athanasius to 
Serapion, and continue in the writings of: Basil the 
Great, Gregory Nazianzen, Didymus, Hilary of Poi- 
tiers, Ambrose and Augustine. Since the Reforma- 
tion the important writings on the Holy Spirit have 
concerned his works or offices more than his person, 
Valuable suggestions of truth are scattered through 
the writings of the Reformers of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. In the seventeenth century the treatises of the 
Puritans, John Owen and John Goodwin, are the chief 
formal discussions of the great theme. Within the 
_ present century, ‘notably during the past thirty years, 
many small volumes have been published, and valua- 
ble discussions are to be found in reviews and cyclo- 
pedias.? 

A little reading on the subject eOnKE the fact that 
one should approach it from several sides, and that 
he who would learn the conditions of obtaining the 
constant guidance of the Supreme Leader of the 


INTRODUCTION X11 


Church of Christ and of every individual Christian, 
must gain his knowledge of that Leader from every 
source whence it may be derived. 

In the study of the subject we quickly find four 
questions of chief importance: 


I. What does the Bible teach about the Holy 
Spirit ? 

II. What have Christians learned from the teach- 
ings of the Bible and their own experience ? 

III. What may be regarded as the Christian view 
of the work and person of the Holy Spirit? 

IV. What is the practical significance of the truths 
brought to light in the answers to the preceding 
questions? 


Man has no adequate knowledge of God save 
through the revelation recorded in the Holy Scrip- 
tures; and he is unable correctly to interpret his 
own spiritual life except by the same aid. Thus it 
is evident that all knowledge of the Holy Spirit is 
dependent upon the revelation recorded in the Scrip- 
tures. It is the fact that during the history of the 
Christian Church Christians have discerned the mean- 
ing of those revelations with more or less clearness. 
It is also true that the facts all need to be carefully 
interpreted by reflection from the standpoint of a 
person to whom the life molded by the Spirit is a 
reality. 

These four questions are made the subjects of four - 


XIV INTRODUCTION | 


Studies, and the record of the investigation to which 
they have led is designedly brief. It is hoped that 
many questions left untouched may be suggested to 
the reader. No discussion of miracles is attempted. 
No hypothesis of inspiration is suggested, yet it is 
hoped that the chief elements of an adequate doctrine 
have been brought to light in the investigation. It 
is believed that the facts pointed out give room for 
any criticism of the Scriptures, literary or historical, 
in which the unfettered investigation of the Christian 
scholar may. engage. The question, ‘‘ What is the sin 
against the Holy Spirit?’ is left to others to answer. 


TLHESOUPK EME: LEADER 


~ 


SE CHD AYE 


WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES TEACH CONCERNING... 


THE? HOD Vie SPURTE? 


In the attempt to find the answer to this question 
one finds that it was only by a gradual development 
that the Biblical writers attained the full Scriptural 
conception of the Spirit of God. This development 
is found within the Old Testament writings, and be- 
comes especially manifest in those of the New Tes- 
tament. The material gained in the investigation 
readily falls under the following topics: 


I. The Old Testament idea of the Spirit of God. 
A. The idea expressed by the word spirit. 
B. The idea of holiness. 
C. The Old. Testament. conception-of the 
Spirit olzGod. 
II. The ideas found in the extra-Biblical Jewish 
literature. ; 
III. The New Testament teaching about the Holy 
Spirit. 
fA. The work of the Holy Spirit. 
Do Lhe personal conception.) of; the oly, 
Spirit: 


CHAPTE Rel 


THE OLD TESTAMENT IDEA‘OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


2 


A. The idea expressed by the word spirit 


The word spirit in its common Biblical use ex- 
presses an idea which is the last of a series of ideas 
connected with the word, and the successive ideas of 
the series mark stages of experience and thought. 
In this respect the word is like all words which relate 
to the inner life of man. As man passes from the 
childlike and outward apprehension of his experience 
to maturer knowledge he comes to believe in the 
existence of some realities which his physical senses 
cannot perceive. These newly recognized realities 
are suggested through his experience. In this expe- 
rience the newly recognized reality is associated with 
something already perceived by the physical senses. 
The name given to the object formerly perceived is 
now applied to the new reality. Thus it is that the 
words which relate to the inner life of man originally 
designated something belonging to his outer» life 
which he perceived by his physical senses. This 
idea of the outer physical object as the beginning of 


6 THE SUPREME LEADER 


the development has well been called a physical or 
intuitive substratum of language. 

The words ruach, pneuma and spiritus are excel- 
lent illustrations of the development of the spiritual 


idea from its intuitive substratum. They are each — 


derived from a root meaning to breathe, or to blow. 

Thought easily passes from breath in man to the 
life which is present so long as he breathes and 
which ceases when breath ceases. In the phrase 
ruach chayyim, breath of life (Gen. 6:17; 7:15), 
the two ideas are associated. The phrase is elabor- 
ated yet more in n7shmath ruach chayyim, breath of 
the breath (spirit) of life (Gen. 7:22). Here the 
ruach is at least passing from the percept of breath 
cognizable by the senses to the concept of life, a 
reality present in a being wherever the breath is per- 
ceptible. An illustration of the use of the word with 
the meaning life is seen in Job 10:12; here rach 
denotes the principle of life in man which is pre- 
served by God. In Job 17:1, this same life-princi- 
ple is enfeebled in its action. A similar use of the 
word is found in Judg. 15:9; 1 Sam.30:,125 Ps, 
B76) In at Kethoss 5o2:Chron, 402 4, the meaning 
passes from the life-principle to the feeling of life. 
The queen of Sheba saw the splendor and state of 
Solomon’s court “and there was no longer spirit in 
her; ” her sense of self-mastery and reticence which 
ordinary etiquette and royal dignity demanded van- 
ished, and she burst forth into speeches of wonder 


THE OLD- TESTAMENT IDEA 7. 


and admiration. Here the meaning of rwach has 
come to the border of the physical life and touches 
that of the spiritual life- : 

Through the idea of the consciousness of life the ~ 


mind easily passes to the idea of consciousness ine. 


general, and then to that of knowledge. heresies 
also another channel by which the mind may pass 
from the physical breath to mental states and dis- 
positions. Some change in a person's breathing is 
one of the most noticeable indications of his feelings. 
The dilated nostril with hasty breath—even snort- 
ing—_=is ‘a*signof anger. On ‘the? other hand a 
restraining of breath is an indication of fear or anx- 
iety. Thus rack comes to express feeling. 

The processes of thought which have just been 
illustrated were continued until rwzach, breath, life or 
the principle of all human life, came to denote every 
form of energy of man’s higher life for which we have 
no better term than spiritual life. Hence ruach 
denotes man’s intelligence (Is. 29:24); his feelings, 
aeerages (uda.mon 63 Ahr. 16°32; 29:11), courage 
Gosh 2: 11),.desite (Iss 20. 9); his general dispo- 
sition, (Ps! 32:2); his-moral nature®-(Pr.\16- 18), 
and even his volitions (Ps. 78:8; Num. 14:24). 

When man conceived himself as made in the 
image of God and thought of his own personal 
nature as breathed into him by God, he inevitably 
applied the terms describing his own nature to God. 
Thus God's ruach easily came to signify a breeze, 


8 THE SUPREME LEADER 


wind or storm; then it could mean the living energy 
of God manifesting itself in the physical world (Ex. 
15:8; Hos. 13:15), and in man, and finally the 
divine intelligence, affections or will. 


B. The Biblical idea of holiness 4 


In the New Testament the proper name of the 
Spirit of God is Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament 
the common name is Spirit of God or of Jehovah. 
There is, however, a slight preparation for the New 
Testament usage in the Old Testament. Three 
times 6 Ps4254 1 1; ws). 03 210; 11) the fame is Azs, 
or thy holy Spirtt. What is the nature of this idea 
which is attached to the Spirit of Jehovah in such a 
manner that it should have become essential to his 
name in the New Testament? 

The words which express the idea of holiness, 
godhesh, gadhosh, gadhash, present one of the most 
interesting linguistic problems of the Old Testament. 
It must be believed that these words, like ruach, 
originally meant something perceptible to the phys- 
ical senses. “The truth is, that these words are 
nowhere found save in a religious sense, and the 
attempt to ascertain the physical conception on 
which this use is based is generally abandoned by 
modern scholars as hopeless. There is, however, a 
certain probability that the primary idea is that of 
‘separation’ or ‘cutting off. Although this view is 
not capable of demonstration, it may be adopted 


<3 


a» «sen 


THE OLD TESTAMENT IDEA 9 


- provisionally as one which fits in remarkably well with 
Old Testament usage.”2 Another suggestion which 
fits in with Old Testament usage is that of ‘unap- 
proachableness.”? This view also has strong support. 

Since there is so little knowledge regarding the 
primary idea of this root, nothing better can be done ~ 
than to ascertain as exactly as possible the religious 
sense of the word. 

Israel probably found the word already in use in a 
religious sense, and at the beginning it is likely that 
they used it precisely as their neighbors did. There 
are passagés which seem to indicate that in the 
earliest use of the word for a religious purpose it 
meant cleanliness (Ex. 19:10, 11) of body and of 
clothing as a condition for coming before Jehovah 
for worship. It is likely that a more common idea of 
holiness was much like what is commonly called taboo, 
7.€., “a custom universal among primitive peoples, 
according to which man’s free use of natural objects, 
etc., was restrained by fear of supernatural penalties.’ 

At some period in the history of Israel, earlier than 
the writing of the Old Testament narratives, the idea 
of holiness had come to be that of ownership by 
Jehovah, 7. e., things were holy because they belonged 
to Jehovah and were set apart for his pleasure. This 
statement of the meaning of holiness gives little help 
when we seek an answer to the question what holi- 
ness meant when it was affirmed of Jehovah. 

The idea of the holiness of Jehovah may be 


IO THE SUPREME LEADER 


derived from either of the primary ideas suggested 


above, “separation ” or “ unapproachableness.” Jeho- 


vah abhorred impurity, 7. ¢., he shrank from it as 
though sensitive to the contact (Lev. 19:25, 26,45 ; 
Ezek. 43:7, 9). From the idea of separation would 
easily come the idea of physical purity, and then moral 
purity. From the idea of unapproachableness would 
easily come the idea of high moral character and 
perfection. Many writers on Old Testament subjects 
seem fettered by the etymological conceptions given 
above, so that they fail to rise to the wealth of thought 
which some of the prophets and psalmists put into 
their idea of God’s holiness. Usus norma loquendt. 
The prophets use the term to denote the ethical per- 
fection of Jehovah. Therefore, holiness means the 
richest ethical conception to which the prophets. could 
attain. This conception of God’s holiness is that 
characteristic which distinguishes the Old Testament 
religion from the religions of the neighbors of Israel. 

For Amos, Jehovah’s oath by his holiness (4: 2) 
is apparently equivalent to the oath by himself 
CORBIS 72: e., by his own being. For Amos, Jeho- 
vah’s essential character was righteousness, hence, for 
him, Jehovah’s holiness, righteousness and being are 
one and the same thing. Isaiah (5: 16) regarded 
judgments which were the expressions of Jehovah's 
righteousness as also manifestations of his holiness. 
Further, the holiness of God is closely connected 
with his redemptive interpositions on behalf of Israel, 


i. 


TIIE OLD TESTAMENT IDEA AiR 


or with his manifestations of grace to Israel (Ps. 22: 
eg TO e eed eo bee aan TATRA 12026) 
With the prophets holiness means “everything which 
God has disclosed of an ethical nature, wrath, ven- 
geance, fiery zeal of retribution, his lawgiving word, 
his grace, love, compassion, all are proof of one and 
the same fundamental energy in him, namely, the 
vindication of his ethical purity and perfection in the 
contest against everything which antagonizes him 
and his holiness, and its purpose is the upbuilding 
of the kingdom of the pure and the good.’ Holi- 
ness is thus manifested alike in the negative antago- 
nism to evil and in the positive impartation of new 
divine life. Where the evil is vanquished and “the 
full self-impartation of God can enter, there cul- 
minates the revelation of God in the concept of God 
as [a being] of love, as the Father.”? 

It is this mature conception presented in. the 
prophets which is made the attribute of the Spirit of 
Jehovah. Even ifit were possible to interpret the 
word holiness as simply equivalent to the word 
divine, the context forbids us to take it in that sense 
inlet Sis where ts deseribes”- the spirie-as tire 
source of moral purity in the life of the psalmist. 

The Old Testament idea of God’s holiness is very 
nearly as mature as that in the New Testament thus 
described by Stevens: ‘We may sum up our results 
thus: In the absolute sense God alone is holy, and 
his holiness is the ground of the requirement of holi- 


2 THE SUPREME LEADER 


ness in his creatures (1 Pet. 1: 16). Holiness is the 
attribute of God, according to which he wills and 
does only that which is morally good, In other 
words, it is the perfect harmony of his will with his 
perfect ethical nature. But the divine holiness is not 
to be thought of as a mere passive, quiescent state. 
It is an active impulse, a forthgoing energy. In 
God’s holiness, that is, in the expression of his per- 
‘fect ethical nature, his self-revelation is grounded. 
Nay, creation itself, as well as redemption, would be 
inconceivable apart from the divine holiness, the 
energizing of God’s absolutely good will. 

«By some theologians holiness and love are iden- 
tified. More commonly they are sharply distin- 
guished—holiness being regarded as being the self- 
preservative or retributive attribute of God, and love 
as his beneficent, self-imparting attribute. To dis- 
cuss this subject here would carry us too far. ‘It 
seems clear, at least, from our investigation, that holi- 
ness and love represent closely kindred conceptions, 
and that there is an inner harmony between them. 
They are the two words which best express God’s 
moral perfection, and the difference between them 
seems rather formal than real.’”4 

The Bible presents no conception of God’s charac- 
ter so comprehensive as that of his holiness, and to 
this fact it is probably due that the Spirit of Jehovah 
is called his Holy Spirit, and this phrase became his 
settled name in the New Testament. 


THE OLD: TESTAMENT IDEA 


C. The Spirit of God 


We are now prepared to learn as exactly as we 
may the idea expressed in the Old Testament by the 
phrase Spirit of God: 


tlie Cosmic:Spirit 


The book of Genesis opens thus: “In the begin-. 
ning God created the heavens and earth. And the 
earth. was waste and empty, and darkness was upon 
the ocean, and the spirit of God was hovering (or 
brooding) over the waters.” “Spirit of God” ap- 
parently expresses a definite meaning well known to 
the writer and to those for whom he wrote. The 
functions of this Spirit were appropriate to his pur- 
pose in this particular connection. 

The action of the Spirit is expresséd by the parti- 
ciple and is, therefore, continuous. The verb itself 
is used nowhere else in the same conjugation except 
in Deut. 32: 11, where it means the hovering, protect- 
ing motion of the mother eagle over her young. 
Here the Spirit hovers over the chaos, therefore it is 
conceived as being external to it. The hovering or 
brooding denotes the impartation of something by 
the Spirit and this something imparted is, according 
to the subsequent context, energy which springs into 
operation with the various commands, “ Let there be 
ieht,.: etc: 

At the beginning there was an unorganized fluid, 
something which we call chaos; at the end it has 


14 THE SUPREME LEADER 


become a cosmos. ‘The only operative energy is 
the Spirit of God in connection with the utterance of 
God’s will. It is not too much to say that in the 
mind of the Hebrew writer all the energy operating 
in the various stages of development is due to the 
Spirit of God. From that Spirit comes the energy 
which appears first as order shown by light and the 
separation of land and water, next as life in plants 
and animals. 

This conception of the Spirit of God as the origin 
_ of the life in the world appears also in Ps. 104: 29, 
30: 

«¢ Thou gatherest in their spirit, they expire, 
And to their dust they return. 


Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created, 
And thou renewest the face of the ground.” 


Here all living creatures and the plants are con- 
ceived as dependent upon God’s Spirit for their 
existence. 

It is evident that man owes not only his physical 
life (Job 27: 3), but also his intellectual and moral 
capacity to the Spirit of God, Job 32: 8: 

«« But it is the spirit in man, 
Even the breath of the Almighty 
Which giveth understanding.” 

Here the understanding of man is attributed to 
the breath, mshamah, of God. In Gen. 2: 7 man’s 
personal life is regarded as having the same origin. 
Like teaching is found in Job 33: 3, 4. 


THE OLD TES¥YAMENT TDEA ae 


Vet more pointedsaren xe 26) 2 Bagg 1 3e sae 
where not only the natural endowments of Bezaleel, 
but his acquired mechanical skill are attributed to 
God’s Spirit. These various passages show that to 
the Hebrew mind all forms of physical life, of men- 
tal power and artistic skill were alike due to this one 
divine energy operating in a manifold variety of 
forms. The Spirit of God as divine energy operating 
in the universe gave each class of created objects or 
beings its own peculiar form, whether mineral, plant, 
animal or personal; and in persons the same 
energy was manifest, distributing to them their varied 
capacities. 

Gen. 6: 3: “ And Jehovah said, my Spirit will not 
forever be humbled in man. In their wandering he 
is flesh.” .-The: Spirit of. Jehovah -here- denotes, by 
reason of contrast with flesh (the perishable being, 
man), the principle of life. It is humbled or 
thwarted so as to faik of its normal development in 
men because of their sinful life. This implies 
that the normal development of the energy 
in man which constitutes him a person is toward 
anolyte, Even if the -translatiom = @we/l or 
rule be preferable fo ‘be humbled,” it is still true 
that the Old Testament idea is that the energy which 
constitutes man a person will, in its normal -develop- 
ment, secure holy conduct as well as the mechanical 
skill of a Bezaleel. 

Here is no Trinity and no suggestion of a Trinity. 


16 THE SUPREME LEADER 


The doctrine of the Trinity needs not to look to the 
Old Testament for any positive support. The results 
thus far gained have a constructive value which is 
not found in the Bible aside from this Old Testament 
idea of God’s Spirit. This Old Testament concep- 
tion of the Spirit of God has well been called the 
mightiest vehicle of the monotheistic view of the 
world which the Old Testament contains. In nature- 
religions the manifold forms of life and activity in the 
world are attributed to many and different agencies, 
partially divine. This idea of the Spirit of God as 
the primeval energy in all nature unifies all physical, 
vital and sentient development and leaves no room 
for polytheism. 

This energy was not only present at the origin of 
the world, but it is constantly manifested in the 
changes of the physical world and in human history. 
The Old Testament writers assume a dualism of 
matter and spirit and entertain no thought of antag- 
onism. The Spirit of God is a constant factor in the 
existing development of the world. This idea that 
the Spirit is in all forces and operations, coordinat- 
ing and directing them, is a real recognition of the 
divine immanence and leaves n@ room for deistic 
thinking. It does not follow that the significance of 
this great formative principle was recognized. It 
found a place in the Hebrew mind and molded 
thought, even though slowly. The earlier expres- 
sions of the thought were crude, but this crudity is 


: 


THE-OLDY TESTAMENT: IDEA Le 


unavoidable in the expression of the rudimentary 
conceptions of any great fact. The phrase Cosmic 
Spirit is an excellent designation of this conception 
of the Spirit of God. 


2. The Charismatic or Redemptive Spirit 


The Spirit of God, or more often of Jehovah, was 
also the source of other powers than those already 
mentioned. When all the ordinary powers of-men 
are due to the Spirit of God, when the differences 
among men in their natural endowments are due to 
the Spirit’s distribution of power, there is abundant 
room for special gifts of power. 3 

There are passages where the Spirit of Jehovah is 
said to bestow upon men energies which are more or 
less temporary additions to their ordinary powers. 
Just as the Cosmic Spirit differentiates between men 
in the various forms of power which are imparted, so 
the Spirit of Jehovah made at times a real differentia- 
tion between a man and his ordinary self. This was 
done by bestowing upon men gifts which were for 
the purpose of qualifying them to perform some spe- 
cial service on behalf of the Israelite commonwealth 
or religion. 

The impartation of this gift is expressed by vari- 
ous figures of speech. The Spirit came upon Oth- 
niel (Judg. 3:10) so that he judged Israel and led to 
war. In the same way Jephthah, Samson, Saul and 
David were said to receive special preparation for 

3 


18 THE. SUPREME LEADER 


service, Thus were Jahaziel (2 Chron. 20: 14) and 
Azariah (15:1) qualified to utter divine messages. 
This Spirit might depart from a man, as from Saul 
(1 Sam. 16:14), leaving him disqualified for the duties 
which he had once performed. 

The Spirit “put.on” Gideon (Judg. 6:34), or 
clothed itself with him as a garment, arousing him 
to a great work. The same expression is used in 
1 Chron. 12:18, where Amasa was moved to express 
choice of David as king; and in 2 Chron. 24:20, 
where Zachariah was qualified to utter a message from 
God. In all these cases the presence of the Spirit is 
conceived as imparting extraordinary power, making 
the man capable of extraordinary performances. It 
was the same power which enabled Ezekiel to utter 
his. prophecies«( P-2geki2 i293 5245 77125): 

An examination of this class of passages thus 
far mentioned shows that sometimes the operation 
of the Spirit was thought to be an. external impulse 
coming or falling upon a man, and sometimes to be 
an internal power, as when it clothed itself with a 
man or entered.into him. This gift was a qualifica- 
tion of the prophets for declaring the mind of God 
( Mic.’ 3 83%. 1S ?48 716.5 Zech -7 4-124 en ag 30s 
or in general for any service (Is. 30:1; Hag. 2:5; 
Lech?ss:65 Nehno. 20;). 

Important characteristics of this gift were: 

First, it was a gift by measure; it did not pre- 
suppose a perfect character, é. ¢., Gideon, Samson, 


THE OLD: TESTAMENT IDEA 19 


David. It did not secure against human weaknesses 
such as cowardice, as in the case of Elijah. It did 
not qualify a man at every moment to speak the mind 
of God, e. g:, Nathan. It did not enable a man to,7 
.understand all things belonging to his mission or 
message, especially as to future times (Dan. 12:4, 
5-0; 107'13.). acs 

Secondly, the Old Testament conception is that 
God by some means convinced the receiver of this 
eift that the mind of God had really been imparted 
to him, that he was really doing the will of God, and 
was in some degree in intelligent cooperation with 
God. 

Especially important in this connection is Is. 11: 
2 ff., which makes the following declaration in regard 
to the future ruler of Israel: ‘Out of the stock of the 
almost ruined Davidic family I see a fair and fruitful 
branch sprouting, an ideal king. By Jehovah him- 
self he shall be endowed with the perfect qualities of 
a ruler—wisdom and insight, prudence and heroism, 
acquaintance with God’s will, and a willingness to do 
it. Taking delight in every manifestation of true 
character, and endowed with keen discernment, he 
shall not judge from. appearances, nor from testi- 
mony, nor will he tolerate any abuse of justice.” ® 

The gift of the Spirit is promised also to the 
community at large in the Messianic times (Joel 
2:28 {.), giving all its members insight into the will 
of Jehovah. Similar teaching is found in Is. 32:15 ; 


20 THE, SUPREME LEADER 


44:33 42:1 (see also 54: 13 and Jer. 31: 31-34). 

- This idea of the Spirit of Jehovah may be desig- 
nated as the Office Spirit, or, borrowing a term from 
the New Testament, Charismatic Spirit. 

The energy imparted by the Cosmic Spirit has for 
its culminating work the production of holy charac- 
ter; this is likewise true of ‘the Charismatic Spirit. 
Ps05.1 2 10-12% 

‘‘A pure heart create for me, O God, 
And a steadfast spirit renew within me, 
Cast me not away from thy presence, 
And thy Holy Spirit take not from me. 
Give me again the delight of thy salvation, 
And support me with a willing spirit.” 


Verse 10 is a prayer for an inner change, while 
verse II is a petition for the continuance of the 
divine grace. God’s Holy Spirit is a gift of which 
the man might be deprived without the cessation of 
personal life, hence we must regard the conception 
here as the Charismatic Spirit, and not the Cosmic. 
It is a gift imparted over and above any natural 
endowment. Itis a gift from a person to a person. 
It is an Office Spirit, having as its function the eth- 
ical or spiritual perfecting of the man. It is holy 
because holiness is the aim of its activity, because 
it is designed to secure holiness in the man. This 
teaching is similar to that in Ezek. 18:31; 11:19; 
86/260, 27. 

This latter function of the Charismatic Spirit, 


THECOED TESTAMEND, IDEA 21 


which is its chief function in the New Testament, 
makes it well to call this divine energy the Redemp- 
tive Spirit. _ In fact all the works of the Charismatic 
Spirit have a redemptive purpose. 


3. The Personal Spirit. 


There are passages in the Old Testament where 
the phrase Spirit of Jehovah expresses an idea differ- 
ent from either that of the Cosmic Spirit or that of 
the Redemptive Spirit. These ideas are of a divine 
energy going forth’ from God and giving a constitu- 
tion to objects and persons external to God. While 
this energy is a divine immanence, it is clearly nota 
pantheistic immanence, for it constitutes men as 
macpititss (Num. 16.22.5527, 10) s mvioreomer tlic 
whole Old Testament recognizes a personal relation 
between God and man which may take the form of 
antagonism. . Is, 63:9, 10: 

‘+ Tn all their distress was he distressed, 
And the Angel of his Presence saved them, 
In his love and clemency redeemed them, 
And he lifted them, 
And bare them all the days of ancient time. 
Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit 


So that he was changed into an enemy to them, 
He himself fought against them.” 


The verb grzeved sets Jehovah’s Holy Spirit over 
against man in a personal relation, and makes God’s 
Spirit capable of emotion, a most personal experi- 
ence (comp. Eph. 4: 30). The passage may be 


22 THE SUPREME LEADER 


compared with the semi-hypostatic description of the 
revealed Word of God in Heb. 4: 12, 13. It is cer- 
tainly the fact that there is in Second Isaiah a tendency 
to hypostatize the Spirit of Jehovah. The phrase here 
is certainly not equivalent to the Holy Spirit of the 
New Testament. Rather the thought ‘ wells up and 
flows along with a living prophetic intuition of the 
nature and activity of God; moreover as the knowl- 
edge of the divine nature culminates in the holiness 
of God himself _(Lev..19: 2; 20: -3;-22:2) soruach 
godhsho represents the summit of the knowledge of 
Spirit in God.’’® 

Just as the word Spirit may denote the intelligence 
of man (Ts. 29: 24), so it may denote the intelli- 
gence of God, Is..40:°13: 


‘« Who has searched the Spirit of Jehovah? 
And as his counselor has taught him?” 


PS0180: 77% 
‘¢ Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? 
Whither flee from thy presence?” 


The action of the Spirit of Jehovah may also be 
conceived as personal action of God, as 2 Sam. 
EAE Ne He : 

‘* The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me, 
And his word was on my tongue.” 


PS base aT Os 


‘¢ Teach me to do thy good pleasure, for thou art my God; 
Thy Spirit, since it is good, let it lead me on the level earth.” — 


THE OLD: TESTAMENT IDEA 24 


In all this class of passages the idea of the Spirit of 
God is that of something which is essential in him, 
which cannot be dissociated from him. It is energy | 
within him and designates a personal nature insepa- 
rable from him, indivisible in itself, and the princi- 
ple of intelligence, feeling and action. It can neither 
be imparted nor divided as can be done in the first 
two uses of the phrase. In short, it seems to be the 
immanent reason and moral character of God, imma- 
nent in him, while in the first use it denotes the en- 
ergy of God immanent in creation, and in the sec- 
ond use it is an impartation from God as a person to 
man as a person. 

Reverting to the conception of holiness, we must 
say that it lies at the basis of the Old Testament con- 
ception of God, and of all God’s relations with men. 
It contains the idea of separation from all physical 
‘defilement and moral imperfection; this is a nega- 
tive idea of the divine holiness. Holiness includes 
also the positive conception of every moral excel- 
lence. As has been shown also, according to the 
Old Testament, the positively holy God manifests his 
character in judgment and redemption. This quality 
is more than positive, it is active and is not restricted 
to himself or within himself. In this active phase of 
the divine holiness is grounded the self-manifesta- 
tion of the divine character, and also God’s self-im- 
partation. Its normal outcome is the establishment 
-of a community of beings who by their own choice 


- 


24 THE :SUPREME LEADER 


develop characters positively and actively holy. 
Thus the significance of God’s holiness is that it im- 
pels toward the establishment of a society of beings 
who have characters similar to his own and who are 
in fellowship with him. Since God is holy he is not 
satisfied until this society is established. This active 
phase of the divine holiness might well be called 
dynamic. Viewed in all its relations it must be 
regarded as the first cause in the divine character of 
the creation of the world and as the final cause of 
the historical development of the human race. The 
New Testament declaration that God is love is, so far ? 
as man is concerned, but another mode of expressing 
the self-imparting nature of his dynamic holiness. 

This conception of dynamic holiness is the bond 
of union between the three conceptions connoted by 
the phrase Spirit of God in the Old Testament. The 
Cosmic Spirit is operative in preparing a home for 
a society of holy persons, and in so constituting 
men that they may normally develop into such a so- 
ciety. The Redemptive Spirit has for its sole mis- 
sion the actual development of human beings into 
such a society. This society is neither more nor less 
than the Biblical “ Kingdom of God.” The Personal 
Spirit is well called holy, for holiness is the essential 
element of the divine personality. | 

There is a small group of passages which may not 
go unnoticed (Judg. 9:23; 1 Sam. 16:14, 15, 16, 23; 
1831051949 )4, Ke 222 toni). add ere-thespravail= 


THE - OLD TESTAMENT IDEA 25 


ing thought is that a spirit from (or of) God was the 
means of injury to men, The most probable inter- 
pretation of these passages is the same as that of. 


Rom. 1: 24, 28. Probably the Old Testament narra- 


tors could not express their rudimentary conception 


J 


of ‘judicial blindness” in any better manner than is 
done in these passages. Apparently this was their 
way of conceiving the fact that the man to whom the 
evil spirit came had persisted in sin so stubbornly 
that his natural insight had deteriorated and he had 
become involved more and more. inextricably in sin- 


ful courses. 


CHAPTER II 


THE CONCEPTION OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD FOUND 
IN OTHER JEWISH LITERATURE PREVIOUS 
TO THE MINISTRV OF JESUS CHRIST 


The Old Testament conception of the Spirit of God 
could not have remained unmodified by the thought 
of the centuries between Malachi and John the Bap- 
tist. What this modification was is largely a matter 
of inference. We may infer that there was a ten- 
dency to neglect the conception of the Cosmic Spirit, 
and to think more of the personified Spirit of God. 
The evidence is slight but it is real. 

The one ante-Christian utterance in the New Tes- 
tament respecting the Spirit, that of John the Baptist 
(Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke3: 16), is quite in the 
manner of the Old Testament. Such also is the case 
with several passages in the Jewish literature which 
belongs to the period between the Old and New Tes- 
taments. The Charismatic Spirit is mentioned in 
Ecol... 48: 12; 245: Bnoch ft2'5) 113 400 eon 
suiiha’ iASs, WiSd,,botg, Mp siya ano ae ee The 
Cosmic Spirit is mentioned in Judith 16: 14. 

There is one peculiar and noteworthy passage in 


OTHER -JEWISH LITERATURE 27 


Wisd. 7: 22-27, where the Spirit of God is personi- 
fied under the name of Wisdom, so that the idea of 
the Charismatic Spirit is almost blended with that of. 
the Personal Spirit as seen in Second Isaiah. The 
passage runs thus: “‘ For Wisdom, who is the artificer 
of all things, taught me: forin her is a spirit intellec- 
tual, holy, only begotten, manifold, immaterial, 
active, piercing, undefiled, unerring, unharmed, lov- 
ing goodness, acute, unhindered, beneficent, kind to 
man, steadfast, secure, free from care, all-powerful, 
all-surveying, permeating all spirits; for Wisdom is 
more quick to move than any motion; moreover she 
pervadeth and goeth through all things by reason of 
her pureness; for she is a vapor of the power of 
God, the unalloyed effluence of the glory of the 
Almighty; therefore can no defiled thing steal into 
her unnoticed; for she is the effulgence of eternal 
light, the unspotted mirror of God’s effectual opera- 
tion and image of his goodness. Although being 
but one she can do all things, and although unchang- 
ing she reneweth all things, and through genera- 
tions by passing from one holy soul to another she 
maketh them friends of God and prophets.” 

This language is colored by Greek philosophy, 
and the personification is doubtless suggested from 
Proverbs viii. The thought is a legitimate develop- 
ment of Old Testament elements. Its influence can 
not but be seen in the Christian writers of the early 
centuries, 


CHAPTER. ET 
THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING 


The New Testament contains a many-sided devel- 
opment of the idea of God’s Spirit. The facts ex- 
plicitly narrated, the teachings, both implicit and 
explicit, lay a broad foundation for doctrine. The 
degree of advance from the Old Testament is indi- 
cated in the statement that “in the Jewish concep- 
tion personality is ascribed to the Holy Spirit only 
figuratively. In the Christian use, on the other 
hand, the impersonal use is the figurative one, @. ., 
where it speaks of the pouring out of the Spirit.” 
While in only three passages in the Old Testament 
he is called the Spirit of holiness, in the New Tes- 
tament the title of Holy Spirit is fixed. 

In the New Testament there are four groups of 
writings which deserve separate, individual study 
which should be followed by the study of their 
teachings as a whole. These groups are: The 
Synoptic Gospels, the book of Acts, the Pauline 
Epistles, and the Gospel of John. The value of the 
first of these is chiefly in the utterances of Jesus; 
that of the second, in the record of the early impres- 


THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING 29 


sions respecting the historical functions of the Holy 
Spirit; that of the third, in the progressive concep- 


tions of Paul, the worker and thinker, and lastly, the .. 


matured recognition of the meaning of Christ’s 
promises, as illustrated by decades of Christian labor. 
Further, there are two other themes of investigation 
which deserve careful study in this connection: The 
Kingdom of God, and the use of the Greek word 
Ovvats, power, and its derivatives. ~The results of 
such sixfold investigation are given here, rather than 
the processes: 7 


A. The work of the Spirit. 
1. The Cosmic Spit 


When the sphere of the activity of the Cosmic 
Spirit is considered, it might be thought that it is 
mentioned in those passages which refer to the con- 
ception of Jesus CMatte ters; 20°" bakes n: 35), of 
‘Isaac (Gal. 4:29), and to the consummation of the 
resurrection of believers (Rom. 8: bus 

Careful thought, however, must lead us to consider 
these as references to the operations of the Charis- 
matic Spirit in the sphere of the physical life, and 
akin to the operations of the Spirit of holiness of Ps. 
51:11, in the spiritual life, creative in energy. In 
Rom. 8:11, the reference to the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ might be regarded as simply an illustration of 
the operations of the Cosmic Spirit. This would 
mean that the normal relation of the Spirit to the 


30 THE SUPREME LEADER 


physical life and to matter was such that in the main- 
tenance of this relation by the Spirit, Jesus Christ 
rose fromthe dead in as natural a manner as he per- 
- formed any physical act. The speculation is tempt- 
ing; but we are rather to attribute this event to the 
Charismatic Spirit which qualified Jesus Christ for 
his entire work, so that rising from the dead was the 
final act of the redemptive work which Jesus Christ 
performed on behalf of the race. In this passage we 
have presented to us the conception that the entire 
man, body as well as spirit, is to be redeemed, thus 
showing the real purport of the temporal blessing to 
be the removal of all evil, physical as well as spir- 
itual, from the life of God’s people. 

The references to Sarah (Gal. 4:29) and to Mary 
(Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35) relate to events in the 
physical world which exceeded any natural powers 
of Sarah or Mary and which were for the service of 
the redemptive kingdom. Was it by reason of the 
supernatural conception of Jesus that the Christ had 
a divine personality which could be described as an 
“ eternal spirit”? (Heb. 9:14) which was the means 
whereby he obtained an “eternal redemption ”’ 


(Heb.9 12)? 


2. The Work of the Charismatic Spirit. 


This work occupies by far the largest share of the 
attention of the New Testament writers. The more 
striking phenomena should be noted first, partly for 


THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING 3:5 


logical reasons, and partly because the external, the 
physical, precedes the inward and spiritual in attract- 
ing attention, 

a. The charisms sof .service. These were the ° 
operations of the Spirit, producing visible results or 
giving men special qualifications for the service of 
the redemptive kingdom. 

(1) As the Author of revelation or of Scripture, 
the authoritative utterances of the Old Testament are. 
attributed to his influence or agency (Matt. 22:43; 
Mark:.12°336. *Acts 1° 1G) 28.250. Hebs..gu Bp 
FOSS Of especial interest is I Pet. 1 Hh gh Bees 
where Peter ascribes the authoritative utterances of the 
New Testament» preachers to the Holy Spirit, as he 
did those of the Old Testament. Of like import is 
I Cor. 7:40, where Paul claims that in his judgment 
he has received a revelation. This was not a revela- 
tion intuitively perceived to be such ; rather, the judg- 
ment of Paul was that the certainty of his conviction 
on the subject under discussion was the work of the 
Holy Spirit. In this, his experience was doubtless 
similar to that of those Christians of the present 
time who have tried, through prayer and obedience 
to the known requirements of God, to keep their 
souls open to divine influences, with the result. that, 
after years of Christian service, they sometimes infer 
in a particular instance that they are led by the Holy 
Spirit, and their inference amounts to a mighty con- 
viction. The implication of. these words, taken in 


32 THE SUPREME LEADER 


connection with Gal: 12.11) 52,- 18 that thereswere 
revelations intuitively known to be such; of this 
nature, perhaps, are the revelations mentioned in 
Ace 007233 20s4, Pie iedam 4. To the Spirit 
is attributed the authorship of the messages to the 
seven churches (Rev. 2:47, 11,17; 295,35 OUR sa2 a): 
The general meaning of Rev. 14: 13; 19:10, is the 
same. In Luke 2: 26 the Holy Spirit is named as 
the author of specific revelations. 

(2) As the agent for the establishment of the 
kingdom, the Holy Spirit is the author of what are 
technically termed charisms, namely, those gifts 
which were superadded to all natural powers, and 
were especially adapted to the well-being of the 
Church and the development of its spiritual life. 

In general, see Luke 1:15, 17 9:25 John 7: 393 
TA 7 BO He TO ial by 20g 225 223% Acts “125738 
(cf. Luke 24:49); Acts 2:17, 18.33 ;8 308 COs Is 
2 Tim. 1:14; Rev. 22:17. This presence of the 
Holy Spirit with believers was so universal. that 
without it a person was declared not to be qualified 
for Christian work (Jude 19), for workers were set 
apart to service through his anointing. 

By the presence of this Spirit workers were moved 
to perform specific acts or labors (Luke 1:67; 2:27; 
ARS STA At R iar eee lg Oy The importance 
and significance of these cKarisms is brought to 
notice in the narratives respecting the Samaritans 
(Acts i815, .173 18), the Cornelian household 


THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING 33 


CNGUS 1 ©: AVN RE AG Meas Ete bbs 15:8), and the 
disciples at Ephesus (Acts 19:2, 6). These were 
not so much the gifts for special work as gifts which — 
belonged to them because they were believers. 

The classic passage on the subject is in 1 Cor. xii. 
Apparently some of the charisms had a degree of 
likeness to the frenzies of the heathen priests or 
soothsayers. It is certain that the ecstatic condition 
under. the old Covenant sometimes bore such a 
resemblance. The person who had come under the 
influence of Christianity, and had been truly con- 
verted, often lacked that sobriety of mind, or matur- 
ity of judgment, needed to distinguish the new 
Christianity from the old heathenism, in this respect. 
The following points of discrimination have been 
made between the operations of the Holy Spirit and 
whatever resembled them in heathenism: Cie ihe 
objects to which they severally led differed, as idols 
differ from Jesus Christ. (2) The heathen were led 
away captive at the will of evil spirits, whereas 
Christians are led rationally and morally by the 
Spirit of God. (3) They also differed as to the tes- 
timony respecting Jesus Christ; nothing derogatory 
to him, to his nature or position can come from the 
Holy Spirit.® 

Here, as in the Old Testament, is a recognition of 
the fact that the charism for work and that for char- 
acter were not commensurate. In short, the gifts 
and graces of the Spirit were not equally present. 

4 


34 THE SUPREME LEADER 


There is an implication, however, that they need to 
coexist. 

In 1 Cor. 12: 7-13, the charisms are referred to the 
Holy Spirit as their author, and in Rom: 12\' G;Sft\ts 
intimated that he bestows them upon those whom he 
has qualified through his sanctifying agency. The 
charism here mentioned is that of prophecy, which 
consisted in the intelligent and persuasive expression 
of what the Holy Spirit had communicated to the 
speaker for the instruction and sanctification of 
Christians. This charism of prophecy was one which 
might be despised (1 Thess. 5:19, 20), either in its 
form, of uttexance; or, more probably, in its contents. 
In Gal. 3: 5, the charism of miraculous powers mani- 
fested in the apostolic Church was attributed to the 
Holy Spirit. Is the charism of wisdom illustrated 
by.2 Cor, 10: §/andiActs 6-3, 108 

As has been said, it was the object of the activities 
of the Holy Spirit to exalt Jesus Christ as Lord, he 
directed everything to this end by his natural ener- 
gies, and when these failed, by those which were 
supernatural. That the mission of the Holy Spirit 
was to render operative the truths of the gospel is to 
be seen from the facts that his mission concerned not 
himself, but Jesus Christ; that he was sent in the 
name of Jesus Christ (John 14:26); that he was to 
witness of Jesus (John 15:26); that he was to bring 
to remembrance the things that Jesus had said (John > 
14:26); that he was sent as a representative of 


THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING 35 


Jesus Christ (John 16: 7, 14; 15) ; that in his convinc- 
ing the world of sin, the sin is unbelief in Jesus 
Christ (John 16:9); that it was his office to clorify- 
Jesus Christ by taking the things concerning Christ 
and declaring them to the disciples (John 16:14), 
and finally that “the Spirit was not yet” ¢€John 
7:39), until Jesus Christ should haveé completed the 
supreme revelation of God, and should thereby have 
given the Holy Spirit a basis of historical facts which 
could be used in impressing souls otherwise unre- 
sponsive to the truth. 

Now, convincing the world of sin, of righteousness, 
and of the judgment to come is closely connected 
with the charism of effective utterance promised and 
given to the early Christian teachers. In iacte tie 
charismatic impartation of effectiveness to those 
teachers was accompanied by the Spirit's work on 
the minds of the hearers, witnessing to the truth of 
the message, 7. €., convincing the hearers of their sin, 
and of righteousness and judgment. 

lei Uhesst 55 Rom: 15:19, the power with which 
the gospel was preached by Paul could be accounted 
for only by the presence of the Holy Spirit qualify- 
ing the apostle for his work. This power, as a gen- 
eral equipment, is clearly taught in 1 Cor, 2 [Ay E2eT A. 
Paul also claims (2 Cor. 6:4-6) that his ministry 
and that of his fellow workers was proved to be in 
the Holy Spirit, by a presence and power manifested 
which could be none other than that of the Holy 


36 . THE SUPREME LEADER 


Spirit. This evidence is analogous to that of the 
proof of the presence of the Holy Spirit in a 
human life drawn from his manifested sanctifying 
operations. In Paul’s individual convictions he 
looked to the Holy Spirit to save him from the 
peril of self-deception (Rom. 9:1). The boldness 
with which Paul could minister effectively, even while 
imprisoned, was supplied by the Spirit of Christ 
(Phil. 1:19), and the effectiveness of his utterance 
of truth was due to the same Spirit (Eph. 6:17). 

(3) The work of the Church in general had for its 
inspiring and unifying agent the Holy Spirit. This 
work is twofold; on the one hand the Holy Spirit 
exercises his regenerating and sanctifying agency 
upon individuals, on the other he brings those indi- 
viduals into a unity with each other, and guides them 
in their corporate activities. 

In prophecy, John the Baptist, atiibieed the ee 
tism with the Spirit to the Messiah (Matt. 3:1 
Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16), and Jesus himself see 
it (Luke 11:13). The development of the Christian 
character of the Corinthian believers was through the 
ministry of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3-11), and it 
was accomplished by his dwelling in them as _ his 
temple (1 Cor. 3:16). As the author of unity he 
upholds and develops the specific life of the Church 
CEpho 4:3)). . 

z. He teaches the needs of the kingdom and the 
conduct appropriate to those needs. The disciples, 


THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING 37 


when compelled to defend themselves before the 
tribunals of persecutors, were to be taught what to 
say (Matt.210310, 2055 Luke 127.125) cf: Marks 
ioeti Lukes 21.15 yy Olt simlasimpert-is the’ 
statement (Acts 5:3, 4,9) that the attempt on the 
part of Ananias and Sapphira to deceive the apostles 
was also an attempt to deceive the Holy Spirit; and - 
Peter’s knowledge of the deception could have been 
only an immediate perception gained through the 
agency of the Holy Spirit. Acts 5:32 also testifies 
to the presence of the Holy Spirit with those who 
were witnessing for Christ. By the Holy Spirit Barn- 
abas also was qualified to take the right point of 
view respecting the progress of the gospel among 
the Greeks (Acts 11:24); 

zz. The Holy Spirit also rules in the activities of 
the kingdom, and impels men to engage in them 
(Matt- 10719; 20%> Mark 19 a7 > Acts: 35:36,30 - 
10:19, 20). From him came specific directions as 
to work undertaken in behalf of the kingdom (Acts 
42-4 5515.:28);, and he’ appomted the ’persons for 
such work, : 

zaz. Not only did he impel and direct work, but he 
hindered his servants from taking a course which he 
did not choose (Acts 16:6, 7). 

(4) Not only the servants of Jesus, but Jesus him- 
self received from the Holy Spirit his qualifications 
for his work, according to the promise in Is. 11:2 


Rem Joni s 34. Acts 4-26)" 


38 THE SUPREME LEADER 


_ There was at the baptism a visible symbolic mani- 
festation of the bestowal of this gift (Matt. 3:16; 
Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32, 33). Lite 
Galilean ministry of Jesus began in the power 
of the Spirit (Luke *4:.14).. He himself claimed 
the fulfilment in his own person of the Old Tes- 
tament prophecies of the Holy Spirit (Is. OI: 1 
and Luke 4:18; cf. Is. 42: 1-4 and Matt. 12: 18). 
Through Jesus was manifested the power of the 
Spirit in healing (Luke 5:17; see also Peter's state- 
ment, Acts 10: 38). It was through the Holy Spirit 
that Jesus chose his apostles (Acts 1 : 2 >this passage 
may mean that Jesus gave commands to the apostles 
by the Holy Spirit). The inner experiences of Jesus 
were in the Holy Spirit (Luke 10:21). John the 
Baptist attributed to Jesus the possession of the Spirit, 
a divine gift, in his case not by measure, as it was 
in the case of others (John 3:34). His work of 
redemption was crowned by the resurrection, with 
which the Spirit had some connection (Rom. Big isles 

This general conception of the Spirit, as a charism 
for service, is more prominent ‘in the records which 
came from the hand of Luke than in the writings of 
others. Apparently Luke was impressed with pecu- 
liar force by these gifts of the Holy Spirit, the phe- 
nomena which transcended the operations in physical 
nature, with which he, as a physician, was especially 
conversant, or which he had especially observed in 
the life of men. 


THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING 39 


b. The charism of character or of redemption. 

The Holy Spirit as a gift secures the regeneration 
and sanctification of men. The New Testament: 
brings this fact to our notice very much more than : | 
is done in, the Old Testament. . It is made more” 
important than the charism for service. It is” 
suggested that the gifts of the Holy Spirit ‘had 
been thought of at first by Paul as outward, so that 
they attracted attention disproportionate to their 
value, and became an object of desire in the case of 
the Corinthian Christians, as well as in that of Simon 
Magus; also that the irregularities occasioned in 
connection with these outward manifestations of the 
Spirit, and the exaggerated importance attached to 
them turned the thought of Paul to those manifesta- 
tions of the Holy Spirit in life, which would preserve 
the Church from these misjudgments and these errors 
in conduct. 

(1) The Holy Spirit as a gift secures regeneration 
or the renewal of spiritual life. 

This was included in the prophecy of John the 
Baptist (Matt. 3: 11; Mark 1: 8; Luke 3: 16), and 
it is explicitly declared to be an absolute essential to 
citizenship in the kingdom (JGluim, 2): 239 Ses 8). 
The idea is not foreign to the Synoptics, although 
stated in differing phraseology (Matt. 18: 3,4; Mark 
10: 14,15; Luke 18: 16,17), and the thought evi- 
dently made a deep and permanent impression on 
Peter (1 Pet. 1:23). It is in the words recorded by 


40 THE SUPREME LEADER 


John that the declaration of Jesus concerning the 
agency of the change is preserved. The presence of 
the Holy Spirit in the initiation of the Christian life 
is recognized in Gal. 3: 2, 3; 4: 29; 1 Cor. Ok 
DaeOD pa OROM: Os ese) dee 5s The mode 
of operation is suggested in Acts 9: 31. 

(2) The gift of the Holy Spirit secures sanctifica- 
tion. 

This is the purpose of his regenerating energy 
(Titus 3: 5,6). He enters the soul for no transient 
stay, and it is through his presence that God abides 
in the individual believer (1 John 3: 24). In general, 
the Holy Spirit dwells in the souls of individual be- 
lievers, and rules over them and thus sanctifies them 
according to the promise of Jesus (Luke Tides ya 
He is a gift to the members of-the Messianic king- 
dom (Gal. 3: 14), and is the divine and ruling prin- 
a and the law of the Christian life (Gal. 5: 16- 

25). He is present in all believers (Rom: 8: 4, 

a and by his normal influence produces holy 
aeckee More specifically : 

?. The Holy Spirit gives Christians knowledge of 
the truth, for he gives an anointing which abides in 
them for this purpose (1 John 2: 20, 27). The pas- 
sages which are of especial value on this point are 
those in John’s oe ae the words of Jesus 
(Johni42 16,175, 15 20; 10-2137 15). -The knowl- 
edge which Christian he have of the fact of 
Christ’s lordship is due to the Holy Spirit and to him 


THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING 4I 


alone (1 Cor. 12: 3; cf. Matt. 16:17). The knowl- 
edge which believers have of the wealth of the gospel 
truth comes to them by reason of the manifestation 
to them of the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation | 
Chasheg ens et ib 7- orci. Om. baa er Cored oie 5 2 
inst 7). . 

The application and interpretation of the Messi- 
anic work of Jesus to the heart of believers is the 
work of the Spirit (1 John 5: 6-8). So also was the 
revelation of Christian truth to the early believers. 

zz. Christian love, hope and joy are due to the 
presence and. operations:\of the Holy Spirit.: He 
filled the hearts of the newly converted disciples in 
Iconium with joy (Acts 13: 52), and in 1 Thess. 1: 
6, he is taught tobe the agent originating Christian 
joy. Similar testimony is found in Eph. 5: 18. The 
development of the Christian life in its full richness 
of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, benignity, good- 
ness, faithfulness, meekness and _ self-mastery is sim- 
ply the fruitage of the presence of the Spirit in the 
life*of the Christian’ (Gal. 5: '22)223)s Sa4also) (2 
Cor. 4: 13), faith is represented as a characteristic of 
the indwelling of the same Spirit. Life and peace, 
life in its full and rich sense, the accomplishment of 
the normal destiny of the being, are the result of the 
thoughts, cares and aims controlled by the Spirit 
Gm Ore Oo Tas OL F701 5°21 3h) 

Christian love has the Holy Spirit for its source 

An), 1-28 gig ric aroL ste Cor oeye-Vhil, 1! 9; 


42 THE SUPREME LEADER 


Cole: 7). The. Christian g@racesare irom him 
(Phil. 2: 1). Unity among Christians in the bond 
of peace comes from the same Spirit, since he secures 
Christian love among them (Eph. 4: 3). 

All these works of the Holy Spirit are tokens of 
the presence of his sanctifying agency. All that he 
does for the believer, apart from regeneration, is to 
be reckoned as his work of sanctification. There are 
other such operations worthy of separate enumera- 
tion. 

zzz. Sanctification is his specific work. Doubtless 
this fact is closely connected with the further fact 
that he is not called the Spirit of Love, but the Holy 
Spirit., He is ‘the efficient -cause of “a--Christian’s 
sanctification or growth toward holiness (1 Pet. 1: 23 
2 Thess. 2; 13% Rom: 1529163 a Cons tiie tic as 
given by God for this purpose (1 Thess. 4:8), 
namely, to transform the person by producing a 
Christlike character. These results have already 
been enumerated in part (Gal. 5: 22, 23). By 
enabling us to subdue the fleshly, selfish nature he 
secures us true life (Rom. 8: 13). 

He gives strength in the Christian life, that strength 
which belongs to the inner man (Eph. 3: 16). In 
especial, he gives strength for the endurance of afflic- 
tions and persecutions (1 Pet. 4: 14; 1 Thess. 1: 6). 

He gives fervor, in* prayer (ty Lhess- Srei7y 10), 
pleading within, raising us to holier and higher de- 
sires. ¢ Romy. 8 620,275; Eph. 6:18), The Christian , 


THE NEW TESTAMENT. TEACHING 43 


may so pray that the Holy Spirit is his guiding and 
moving power (Jude 20) ; indeed it is possible for the 
believer to be impelled and directed in all service by 
the Spirits¢ Phils. 3::°3)). 

He produces within us the sense of God’s love to 
us (Rom. 5:5), and causes us to know that we are 
the sons of God. It is true that the new birth makes 
us sons (John 7.:12; 13), but the, Holy’ Spirit. By 
witnessing with our spirits enables us to cry “Abba, 
Father’ (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:4-16). The access 
to God as our Father is mediated through the Son, 
and this access becomes actual within the sphere of 
the Spirit’s influence, and by his operation on our 
Beatie. (Fpl. 20.58) 

He is the witness of the divine favor Cipe Crees 
14). He is the chief spring of Christian hope, the 
earnest or pledge of eternal life (Gal. 5:5; 2 Cor. 
Inne 25 Deieas He gives us the first fruits of. our 
adoption, a pledge of the attainment hereafter unto 
all that the sonship of God means (Rom. 8:23: 5: 
5; 15:13). His present dwelling in the believer is 
the pledge of eternal life (Eph. 4:30). Thus the 
Holy Spirit is ‘the indubitable guarantee of the future 
Messianic salvation received into one’s own con- 
sciousness” (Eph. r: 11-14; cf. Rom. 8: 16). | 

(3) The Holy Spirit consummates his work by 
the redemption of the body. . 

It is by the believer's sharing in the life of the 
Holy Spirit, who is the life-principle of.the world to 


44 - ‘THE SUPREME LEADER 


come, that the deliverance from the power of sin and 
death is to be completed (Rom. 8:11, 23). 

As a conclusion of this part of the exposition, we 
may say that the Holy Spirit seems to secure what 


has been called a duplication of the spiritual nature » 


of man, inasmuch as by a superadded intensity of 
power he secures the attainment of results which sin 
has made it impossible for the original endowment to 
achieve. It is wholly in accord with this fact that 
some recent writers have called attention to the close 
and frequent association of wvedya in the New Testa- 
ment with the idea of power, with évepyetv or dvvamis 
(1 Coro127 105. 2:43 Rom. 1:4; PS: 13, 19; Gal. 
p23 te Hp 105-1. (ness E ings Tita, a7 ee 
Rom..-8 21a? Corpo wi4ait 2a Cor 13K 74 God's 
power seems synonymous with his Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 


5:4). A kindred thought is found in the close.cone 


nection with the idea of life (as Rom. 8: 2, Onli 
LiCor aeyas 3.2 Gor ej 7e aa ean 5, 628)5 for 
death, in Scripture, is a failure to accomplish the 
normal destiny of the creature. 


B. The Holy Spirit as Personal. 


It is here,even more than in the teachings respect- 
ing the regeneration and sanctifying of human life, 
that the New Testament development challenges 
attention. Already a personal agency of the Spirit 
must have attracted attention in the consideration of 
the charisms. At this point the fact that he is a 


THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING 45 


person, and stands in personal relations with other 
persons, may be permitted to appear in its proper 
significance. 


1. Personal activity of the Spirit in relation to 
men. 


He is a person who represents Jesus Christ to his. ~ 


disciples. In the absence of Jesus Christ, his pres- 
ence is more than equivalent to the personal presence 
of the latter (John 16: 7-15), and in the Christian 
economy he, the Holy Spirit, is as the personal God 
(2 Cor. 3:3-11). As Christ is one mapaxdnTos 
(1 John 2:1), so the Holy Spirit is another (John 
14:16). That he is thought of as a personal repre- 
sentative, is evidenced by the masculine pronouns 
referring to him in several passages. In John 14: 26; 
15:26, éxeivos is used referring to him, and is the 
more noticeable, because in both passages the neuter 
relative 6, referring to mwvedma, intervenes between it 
and éxetvos. Also in John 16:13, 14, immediately 
before and after 7d wvedua we find éxetvos. Again, 
in John 16:7, 8, we find the masculine TAPAKANTOS 
with avtés and éxetvos. The significance of these 
masculine pronouns lies in the fact that in the Greek | 
the word for Spirit, the proper equivalent of the fem- 
inine noun in the Hebrew meaning Spirit, has the 
grammatical neuter gender. It might be claimed 
that the use of these pronouns is nothing more than 
personification ; but the fact that all forms of personal 


46 THE SUPREME LEADER 


relation and action are attributed to the Holy Spirit 
forbids us to accept this explanation. 

He is the object of personal action, is treated as a 
person, and has personal feelings corresponding to 
that treatment. He is capable of grief (Eph, 4.03095 
which is an unmistakable mark of personality. In 
the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matt. 
Vo" 33,532-- Mark 34.290; > Luke 2410), theriaon, 
Spirit cannot be thought of as being other than a 
person. Similar to this is Heb. 10:28, 29, where 
the Holy Spirit is represented as possibly being the 
object of contumely and outrage, which may be 
“wrought by scorn and mockery of the wondrous 
unfolding of that Spirit’s power in the life of Chris- 
tians.”’ . 

There are many and varied personal activities 
attributed to him. He and men unite in an act of 
judgment (Acts 15: 28). He witnessed beforehand 
concerning the sufferings of Christ, and is the author 
of the contents of Scripture under the new covenant 
(1 Pet.1: 11,12). He dwells in the believer (1 Cor. 
2: 16% 6719; Rom..879%-2 Tim 13 14).” He qustines 
and sanctifies the believer (1 Cor. 6: 11), thus being 
a personal agent in sanctification (as I Pet. 1:2; 
Rom. 8:2). He rules Christians (Rom. 8: 4, 14), 
leading them, in the activities of the inner and outer 
life, to subdue the fleshly nature, so that they become 
in spirit children of God, and he testifies to their son- 
ship (Rom, 8: 14-16). He seals believers (Eph. 


ST? 
ee ee 


a 


THE NEW’ TESTAMENT . TEACHING A7 


I: 13), guaranteeing to them their heirship in the 
Messianic kingdom. He dwells in the Church and 
vivifies it (Eph. 4:4), giving Christian unity (4:3), 
baptizing believers into one body (1 Cor. 12: 13). 
He prays for believers (Rom. 8:26, 27) and speaks 
focvinem sor through<them (1, Pim: ei) ebesse+7 
eves 2oe7e-etc,. Wlatts<1 0.20.3 lake re falar, Cro Tee 
Ph he Cts - 10% TO, 203 4 2.).. sblesdistributes athe 
charisms and governs their uses (1 Cor. 12: 4, 7-11), 
hindering labor in one place (Acts 16:6, 7), when 
wishing it elsewhere. He testified, wrought and_ 
ruled in the apostles, and thus witnessed with them 
(Acts 5:32); he gave Philip a command' (Acts 8: 
29), and, later (v. 39), urgently hurried him else- 
where. He gave directions to Peter (Acts 10: 19, 
20), declaring that he himself had sent the messengers 
seeking Peter. He committed a trust to Timothy (2 
iim rag). Herteaches believers the truth -ofsthe 
lordship of Christ (1 Cor. 12: 3), and gives Chris- 
tians the knowledge which they are to teach (1 Cor. 
a8 Wea Ee 

This wealth and variety of statements respecting 
the relation of the Holy Spirit to the life and activi- 
ties of Christian believers would seem to justify the 
statement that, within this sphere, at least, the Holy 
Spirit is the executive of the Godhead, or, better, he 
is the Deity in his executive functions. 


48 THE SUPREME LEADER 


2. The relation of the Holy Spirit in the Deity. 

By the very names mvevpa Geod, mvevua Tov Geod, 
ro Tvebpa TO dytov Tod Oeod, it has rightly been said 
that the Holy Spirit is conceived of as essentially be- 
longing to God. 

a. He is God. What is done to the Spirit is done | 
to God, e. g., Acts 5: 3. Peter declared to Ananias 
that in lying to the apostle he had lied to the Holy 
Spirit, and in verse 4 he said it was lying to God; 
thus, although the Spirit is not directly called God, 
his identity with Deity is implied. His dignity is 
that of God (Matt. 12: 31; Mark 3: 28, 29; Luke © 
12: 10). His work is a divine work (1 Cor. 2: 11; 
Eph. 4: 30), and that work is sanctification. The 
persistent and rebellious refusal to obey the messen- 
gers of God (Acts 7: 51) is called resistance to the 
Holy Spirit. In Heb. 3: 7, he is called the author 
of an Old Testament passage, which (as in 4: 3, 4, 
7) was God’s utteranice. In Heb. 9: 8 the Holy 
Spirit is the author of the Old Testament regulations 
as to worship, the authorship of which is attributed 
in verse 20 to God. The utterance of Jehovah 
(Heb. 10: 16,.17, frome Jer. 31- 33, 34) is called the 
witnessing of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 10: 15); in 
Acts 28: 24-27 the utterance of Jehovah (Is. 6: 
8-10) is called that of the Holy Spirit. Thus Peter, 
Stephen, the writer of Hebrews, and Paul spoke of 
the Holy Spirit as God, and in some degree the 
names were used interchangeably. The demonstra- 


THE NEW TESTAMENT. TEACHING 49 


tion of the Spirit is a demonstration of the power of 
God (1 Cor. 2: 4,5); the working of the Spirit is 
the working of God himself (1 Cor. 12: 6, 11) and 
on Ghrice(eph avert; i-Com 12s 4.28. 

In John 14: 17, “He abideth with you and will 


) b] 


be in you;’’v. 18, “I shall come unto you; 
shall come unto you,’ seem to be interchangeable 
phrases. The operations of the Holy Spirit are 
divine, not creaturely operations. His very name 
characterizes him as essentially holy, the source of 
holiness, and this is what no created being can be. 

b. He is subordinate to the Father. 

The Spirit is given from the Father or by the 
Batner (john 14:16, 17; Eph, 1: 17)} is sent. by the 
Fatnen, (John) tA 26) sand by*Christ,, fromy the 
Father (John 15: 26). He is a gift to the believer 
from God (1 Cor. 6: 19). It is through the Spirit 
that Christians have access to the Father (Eph. 2: 
18). Itis to be noted later under 4 that in some in- 
stances where there is coordination, there is also 
subordination. | 


c. The relation of the Spirit to the Son. 


(1) He is spoken of as Christ’s Spirit Ctets. bon 
PReouleonsO. ral s-6 5) Phil te ho i Pots hick 
As Paraclete, the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father 
in the name of Christ (John 14: 26), and by Christ 
qinom, the Father (John 15 7'265 16: 7); thus he is 
subordinate in the sense that he is a representative of 

5 


O97 93) Nee 


50 THE SUPREME LEADER 


Christ and accordingly makes Christ the subject of 
his operations (John 16: 8-15). He was symboli- 
cally communicated by Christ (John 20: 21-23). 
It is through Jesus Christ that he is poured out on 
Christian believers (Titus 3: 6). 

(2) There is also coordination with the Son. Like 
Christ, the Spirit is an objective principle of the 
Christian life (Phil. 2: 1). There is union in the 
being of the Son and the Holy Spirit and in their 
work as well, for in Rom. 8: 10, 11, the indwelling 
of the Spirit is that of the Son; and the Spirit and 
the Son are alike the revealing agents in the messages 
to the churches (Rev. 2: 7, 11, 17, 29; 3: 6, 13, 
22), his voice and that of Christ are one. He and 
Christ stand in the same relation to the believer, in 
respect to his resurrection (Rom. 8: 23; 1 Ot: 
13: 45). The Spirit is thetruth, just as Christ is the 
truth (1 John 5: 6). He is another Paraclete (John 
TAS (16). 

(3) The presence of the Holy Spirit is even more 
important to the disciples than that of Christ himself 
(John 16:7), since he comes to witness for Jesus, 
interpreting and enforcing the mission of Christ and 
his gifts more effectually than could have been done 
by the personal presence of Christ. There is also 
another sense in which his personality seems even 
more important. All other blasphemy of any de- 
scription may be forgiven; even that against the Son; - 
‘the Messianic kingdom and its ruler may be so mis- 


THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING 51 


understood as to be the object of misrepresentation, 
nay, even God and divine things may be intention- 
ally calumniated and the blasphemer can be forgiven, 
but the Holy Spirit may not be blasphemed, except’ 


at the peril of eternal condemnation (Matt. 12:31, 


$2 poWlarka370 0205) Luke :.122- rom Wathetnese pas- 
sages should be taken 1 John 5: 16), aa 

(4.) He is the representative of Christ on earth. 
He carries on the work of redemption. The whole 
passage (John XIV-XVI) is saturated with the truth 
that the Spirit is the full representative of Christ, so 
that the Spirit promotes close sympathy and personal 
fellowship with Jesus Christ. He imparts courage for 
prayer and trust in Jesus Christ, and teaches the 
truth concerning Christ better than could have been 
done by the continuance of his personal presence. 
Further (Acts 15: 28), while Christ is the head of 
the Church, the Spirit is recognized as ruling in the 
Church. 

d. Coordinated with the Father and the Son. 

First in significance is the baptismal formula com- 
manded by Jesus Christ (Matt.28: 19). No attempt 
to invalidate the authenticity of this formula seems 
to find any respectable support, whether on the basis 
of textual criticism or of rejection by even early her- 
etics. It is to be noticed that this great advance 
upon any Old Testament conception is made in that 
gospel which most closely connects the words and 
works of Jesus with the Old Testament and which 


52 THE SUPREME LEADER 


declares the person and works of Jesus to be 
the fulfilment of the law and the prophets. This 
advance was therefore evidently made and taught 
by Jesus himself, with such an emphasis and with 
such words as must have impressed themselves upon 
the minds of his hearers by their very strangeness. 
In regeneration, the members of the Trias are 
associated together (Titus 3: 5, 6), the Father, in 
the washing of the new birth, the Spirit, in the in- 
ward renewing of the heart, while the new life has its 
origin by means of the work of the Son our Saviour. 
In describing the Christian life they are several 
times associated ; while the Holy Spirit is a gift from 
the Father, still he is associated with the Father and 
the Lord, as a necessity in the Christian life (Eph. 
1:17); access to the Father is through the agency 
of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, who is the sphere of 
life outside of which neither Jewish nor Gentile 
believers have any access to the Father (Eph. 
2: 13-18). The Lord, God and the Spirit are asso- 
ciated together in the development of the Christian 
life (Eph. 2: 20-22); the believer, guarded by 
God’s love, awaiting the mercy of Jesus Christ, prays 
in the sphere of the Spirit (Jude 20, 21); the 
Father is supreme and over all, the source of spirit- 
ual blessing, the Holy Spirit is the agent in strength- 
ening the inner man, and Jesus Christ is the inhabi- 
tant of the heart by means of faith (Eph. 3: 14-19). 
Somewhat similar is Eph. 4: 3-6, where we find the 


THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING 53 


conception of one body of believers vivified by the 
one Spirit, subject to the one Lord, to whom the 
believers are united by a common faith and sealed 


by a common baptism, while over all is the uni- 


versal Father. 

In the Christian life of service in the work of the 
kingdom, the three are united (1 Cor. 12: 4°ff). 
The Spirit makes the distribution of gifts; there are 
distributions of energies made by one God who 
energizes in all, there are distributions of ministries 
allotted by one Lord, and there are distributions of 
gifts, charisms from one Spirit. The statement is so 
made that we pass from the Spirit who bestows the 
gifts to the Lord who allots the ministries in which 
the gifts are used, and to God the First Cause. 
Here is seen an Economical Trinity which is recog- 
nized. even by Beyschlag, who adds that it shows a 
very decided subordinationism." This is the fact. 
It is likewise the fact that there is a real coordina- 
tion. The two coexist. The various passages cited 
' show that any identification of the Holy Spirit with 
the glorified Christ is not the solution of such pas- 
sages as teach that Jesus Christ is always present 
with his people and in communion with them. 

Lastly, the Trias appears in the benediction 
(2 Cor. 13:14). On this may be given the note 
of Dr. Dwight: “The grace of the Lord Jesus 
Christ stands first, because it is by it, as Bengel says, 
that the love of God reaches us, The love of God 


54 THE SUPREME LEADER 


is again the source of redemption. It is manifested 
in his sending his only begotten Son into the world, 
‘For God so loved the world,’ etc. The communion 
of the Holy Spirit is not communion with him, but 
participation in him, the holy fellowship mediated 
by his indwelling with the Father and with the Son, 
and with all that belongs to the mystical body of 
Christ. The’ distinct personality and the deity of 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit being here 
plainly implied, the benediction is a clear recogni- 
tion of the Trinity, the fundamental doctrine of 
Christianity.” ® 

In conclusion we may say that in the New Testa- 
ment God’s Spirit is sometimes thought of as an 
impersonal energy which is given to men reinforcing 
their original powers, sometimes as the Deity im- 
parting his energy and entering into the life of men, 
and sometimes as Deity apart from men. 


SCLUD Yookt 


WHAT HAVE CHRISTIANS . LEARNED. FROM THE 
SCRIPTURES AND THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE? > 


While the Scriptures are the primary source of — 
all information respecting the -Holy~ Spirit, the 
experience of Christians is necessary for the attain- 
ment of actual knowledge, and reflection upon Bibli- 
cal teaching and experience is necessary in order to 
attain scientific knowledge. The beliefs recorded in 
Christian writings, so far as they have practical 
value, must be the transcript of experience; and so 
far as they have scientific value, they must be due to 
insight into religious experience interpreted in the 
light of the Scriptures. It is also true that all one- 
sided, imperfect conceptions of Biblical teaching, all 
immaturity of Christian experience, all narrowness 
of range in the observation of the development of 
the Christian Church, must appear in beliefs which, 
like those concerning the person and operations of 
the Holy Spirit, are peculiarly based upon revela- 
tion, and are the outcome of mature religious life. 

In tracing down through the history of the Church 
the development in faith and knowledge, the following 
stages are manifest: the first three hundred years of 


56 THE SUPREME LEADER 


reflection culminate in the affirmation of the deity 
‘of the Holy Spirit; the thousand years immediately 
following show little advance in knowledge on the 
subject, but are marked by a quarrel concerning the 
relation of the Holy Spirit in the Deity. The Refor- 
mation in the sixteenth century brought definite 
advance by the recognition of the Holy Spirit as 
the authority for Christian believers. In the follow- 
ing century, attention was more specifically directed 
to his relation with the Christian life and its devel- 
opment. The eighteenth century brought into 
especial prominence the witness of the Spirit to 
individual believers. During the nineteenth century 
all the Reformation themes have been the object of 
attention, and, in addition, thought has been more 
fully turned toward the Spirit’s function of qualifying 
believers for Christian service, and of leading be- 
lievers into mature experience and into living which 
is Christlike. 

Accordingly the development of the Second Study 
gives the following topics: 

I. Development of thought until 4oo A. D. 

II. Development from 400 until 1400 A. D. 

III. Thought in the century preceding the 
Reformation. 

IV. The advance ‘during the century of the 
Reformation. 

V. Perversions of the truth during the period 1500 
to.1700 A.D. 


WHAT HAVE CHRISTIANS LEARNED 57 


VI. The Puritan faith in England in the seven- 
teenth century. 

VII. The Witness of the Spirit as recognized in 
the eighteenth century. ; 


VIII. The fruitage of thought in the nineteenth.‘ 
century. 


GAAS al 
DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT UNTIL 400 A. D. 


During the first two Christian centuries the teachers 
in the Church were concerned about the needs of the 
religious life. When they spoke or wrote of the Holy 
Spirit they did so not with a scientific interest, but 
with an immediately practical aim. An Ignatius 
would refer to the Holy Spirit for purposes of edifi- 
_ cation, or a Justin Martyr would incidentally write 
of the Holy Spirit as he explained those details of 
the Christian faith which differed most markedly 
from heathenism. The leading features of the utter- 
ances before 200 A. D. are as follows: | 

First. The writers used such language as indicates 
a recognition of the personality of the Holy Spirit 
and of his coordination with the Father and the Son, 
both by the use of the baptismal formula, and by 
references to his work in securing the salvation of 
believers. He was regarded as an object of worship 
and at the same time subordinated to the Father and 
the Son, and sometimes he was apparently identified 
with the Son. The belief in one God was cardinal, 
and equally cardinal was belief in the divine Re- 
deemer, who was the divine Word and God, and in 


DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT 59 


the Holy Spirit, who was associated with the other 
two as an object of worship and as the Helper in the 
redeemed life. The meaning of this threefold belief 
was yet to become clear. 

Second. The authorship of the Scriptures was 
attributed to the Holy Spirit. From him also came 
the qualification of believers to perform Christian 
service, also their desire to perform it and their suc- 
cess in it, and he was the source of Christian knowl- 
edge. 

Third. To the Holy Spirit was attributed the incep- 
tion and the development of Christian life, and the 
attainment of a holy character. 

Fourth. The generation of the physical life of 
Jesus Christ was attributed to him; also the future 
resurrection of soul and body. 

The mode in which these beliefs were expressed 
was very largely Scriptural; furthermore, these beliefs 
were held in a simpfe, unreflective way by men who, 
in peril of life and under the pressure of many duties, 
were intent simply upon the promotion of Christian 
life. .- Phe age -of réflection had not come. .Those 
early writers show less definiteness of thought than is 
found in Scripture, and they had far less uniformity 
and maturity of thought. Their thought concerned 
the Redeemer rather than his Representative now 
carrying on the work of redemption. As soon as 
men began to reflect upon the agencies and methods 
of the redemptive work they could not help advanc- 


60 THE SUPREME LEADER 


ing to more developed or systematized statements 
respecting the Holy Spirit! 

This development in thought first finds symbolic 
form in the Apostles’ Creed. This was doubtless a 
baptismal confession based upon Matt. 28: 19, which 
was used by all branches, or divisions, of the Chris- 
tian Church. 

A further stage of development came in the train 
of the Christological controversies of the fourth cen- 
tury. The first great question about the facts of 
redemption concerned the person of the Redeemer. 
Upon the nature of his personality depended the 
value of the work done by him. This question 
filled the thought of the Church, from the time of the 
origin of the discussion until a quarter of a century 
after the first council of Nica. In the creed of that 
council the reference to the Holy Spirit was merely 
that of the Apostles’ Creed. It seems that the nature 
of the Holy Spirit became a subject of discussion 
about 350 A. D2. The controversy soon called forth 
the celebrated letters of Athanasius to Serapion, in 
which he stated the reasons for believing that the Holy 
Spirit was uncreated and divine. He saw that the 
deity of the Son was involved when that of the Spirit 
was brought into question, and he replied to the 
questions of Serapion without the slightest ambiguity. 
The conviction of Athanasius was that it was impos- 
sible to hold that the Son is uncreated, if they held 
that the Spirit is created, For Athanasius this was 


DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT 6I 


sufficient proof that the Spirit is uncreated. At the 
same time he confirmed his position by many argu- 
ments, chiefly drawn from Scripture. Among the 
works of the Spirit he names some (1 Cor. 2: 11; 
Eph. 4: 30; 1 John 2: 20) which could be due to no 
created being. The presence of the Spirit in man 

Cr CortO..10 83276 7 Tyohnrg) Savimacrardivine ii 
dwelling. The Son and the Holy Spirit have joint 
creative and divine relation to created being, and es- 
pecialla toner Cr Cor 122 Uy Col mer7 2 baal 

hove CO Po TAS ucts 20 f 23 PSUTOAE™ 20) SO, 

BBO Weaecns bo O, 5 XX as Tas ot, Cor tes 4-16 

Luke 1: 35). Moreover the Spirit is so coordinated 
with Father and Son in the Trias (John 14: 23; Matt. 
2310) 2 Conv 3.7145 Eph. 474-6) that hecannot 
be less than Deity; ‘“‘ For what deficiency is there in 
God that a being of some foreign nature should be 
joined with him to be glorified together with him? 
Crodpiorotd ei-lt is not: thus,’ > bhey deity: ofthe 
Trias is one, it is eternal. There was no change or 
progress in the Deity from Duad to Triad. 

Such were the salient points in the argument out- 
lined by Athanasius. Basil and the two Gregorys ex- 
panded it. They added metaphysical subtleties and 
minutize of linguistics to the argument, but the portion 
of their reasoning adapted to produce conviction is 
substantially within the outline sketched by Athana- 
sius.. The results of three decades of discussion ap- 
_ peared in the acts of the Council of Constantinople, 


62 THE SUPREME LEADER 


in 381 A.D. There; the Athanasian doctrine of the 
Holy Spirit was affirmed in a detailed statement 
which has not been preserved. Instead of the utter- 
ance of the council, there gradually came into cur- 
rency a modified form of the creed of 325 A. D., which, 
for centuries, was attributed.to this council of 381, and 
which is commonly known as the Nicene Creed. On 
the subject in question it runs: ‘I believe 

in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, pro- 
ceeding from the Father, who with the Father and 
Son is worshiped and glorified, who spake through 
the prophets.” 

These five statements are given cautiously. “The 
Lord” (2. Cor. 3:17) :was intended. to exclude 
Arianism and also the teaching of the Macedonians, 
and to deny all those statements which attribute to 
the Holy Spirit the nature of a servant. 

“Giver of Life” (John 6:63) defines his position 
in the Economy. It excludes the opinion that the 
life of the Spirit was derived, and is opposed to the 
teaching that he was a work or creation of God. 

“Who proceedeth from the Father” (John 15: 26) 
affirms for him a distinction in personality. It proves 
~ that he was not a creation of the Son, and teaches 
that, deriving his being by procession, he was coes- 
sential with the Father, and hence he is God. 

“Who together with the Father and Son is both 
worshiped and glorified.” This is based upon the 
baptismal formula (Matt. 28:19) and the immemo- 


DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT 63 


rial doxologies, and is an affirmation of personality, 
and of equality. 

‘‘Who spake by the prophets” answers those who 
would maintain the inferiority of the Old Testament, 
as if it were from a God different from the one re- 
vealed in the New Testament. 

The nature and personality of the Holy Spirit had 
not been so long a subject of discussion, or object of 
thought, as that of the Son. For this reason, there 
could not be so complete a statement in the creed as 
there was concerning the Son. He is not declared 
to be coessential with the Father, nor to be before 
all worlds, nor Light of Light, nor very God of very 
God. Implicitly, the creed contains as significant 
statements concerning the Holy Spirit as concerning 
the Son; explicitly, the statements seem to express 
much less. The tone of Basil’s writings on the Holy 
Spirit? shows that the theologians of that time, when 
discussing the subject, felt obliged for the most part 
to content themselves with Scriptural language and 
with the facts of history. | 


CHAPTER II 
THE PERIOD 400 A. D. UNTIL 1400 A. D.* 


A position secured by mature reflection is never 
the termination of thought on that subject. It is 
simply a basis for further investigation and a stimulus 
to engage in it. The question next in order con- 
cerned the relation between the Holy Spirit and the 
other members of the Trias. The question was no 
new one. It was not enough to agree that in nature 
the Holy Spirit was essentially one with the Father 
even as the Son was. Ithad been agreed that there 
was a certain derivation of the Son from the Father. 
The name applied to this form of derivation was 
“generation,” and it was derived from the Scriptural 
phrase “only begotten” PJohiite 18 53h ros iss 
1 John, 4:9). It was regarded not simply as mode 
of derivation, but also the essential and eternal rela- 
tion. But the phrase was accepted also as indicating 
that the Son alone was generate, hence the relation 
of the Holy Spirit to the Father could not be desig- 
nated by the word generation. The phrase in the 
creed, ‘‘proceedeth from the Father” (John 15:26), 
was accepted as indicating the nature of the relation 
of the Spirit to the Father, hence the term “ proces- - 


THE PERIOD 400 A.D. UNTIL 1400 A.D. 65 


sion’’ was adopted to designate the eternal relation 
between the Father and the Spirit. Thus far had 
Christian teachers attained in 381. 

The question yet remained: What is the Stebel 
and essential relation between the Son and the Spirit? 
In John 15:26 are the words: “‘Whom I shall send 
you from the Father.” Are these words significant 
as to the eternal relation between the Son and the 
Holy Spirit? They were so regarded. The majority 
of the writers before 381 A. D., so far as they ap- 
proached any definite statement, seemed to regard 
the Father as the origin of the procession and the 
Son as an agent in it. “Proceeding from the Father 
by the Son,” is the conception which seemed to con- 
tent many writers. Two other passages were brought 
into the discussion, as affording evidence which was~ 
desired. ‘He shall glorify me: for he shall receive 
of mine” (John 16:14), and “And when he had 
said this, he breathed on them, and said unto them, 
Receive ye the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). These 
both were taken as indicating or suggesting the eter- 
nal and essential relation of the Son and Spirit. 
Then came the question, Is it the same to receive 
from the Son and to proceed from the Father? This 
was carefully debated, regardless of the fact that the 
word rendered \“‘receive” is equally capable of 
another meaning, ‘take,’ which appears in the 
Revised Version of the English Bible. The Spirit, 
who is sometimes called by theologians the breath 

6 


66 THE SUPREME LEADER 


of God, proceeds from the Father by spiration, z. ¢., 
breathing, which word is sometimes used to desig- 
nate the procession. | 

In this period the theologians in Europe and 
Africa persevered in their inquiries into the nature of 
the Deity and into the essential relations in the Deity. 
The first formal result seems to have been in the 
statement of belief, put forth by the Synod of Toledo 
about 447 A.D... It is supposed that the desire to 
emphasize the deity of the Son, together with the 
‘nfluence of the teachings of Augustine, was mdni- 
fested in the statement of the synod. This statement 
includes the words paraclelus a Patre filiogue 
procedens, ‘the Paraclete proceeding from the 
bathers. and: Son =) Prom’ tits beeing other 
Western countils added the /v/vogue in their state- 
ments of belief, and even to their current Nicene 
creed. When this became known in the East, ‘it 
created dissatisfaction, because it was there felt thata 
creed universally accepted should be modified only 
by a council as universal as the acceptance of the 
creed. s 

The real difference in belief between the East and 
the West, respecting the relation of the Son to the 
procession of the Spirit, was probably less than might 
have seemed. If the F7/ogue had not been added to 
the Western creeds, and if there had been delay and 
reflection, it is possible that the whole Church would 
have added per Fil/um, “by the Son,” holding that 


THE PERIOD 400 A.D. UNTIL 1400 A.D. 67 


the Father is the common source of both Son and 
Spirit. The result is a sad commentary on the policy 
of forcing the progress of the expression of thought. ~ 
If there had been delay and reflection, it seems as ~ 
though the Eastern portion of the Church could not 
have refused to make the same declaration, for this 
view already had a strong foothold and was taughtin 
the East, so late as the days of John of Damascus 
(who died about 756).5 The /zlogue apparently 
coordinates Father and Son as alike and equally the 
source of the procession of the Spirit, but the phrase 
has been authoritatively interpreted to mean that the 
Spirit “proceeds from the Father and Son, as from 
one Principle and by one spiration.” 

Instead of argument over this question, remon- 
strance and recrimination between the two great 
divisions of the Church followed and created preju- 
dice. The difference became a doctrinal makeweight 
in the quarrels between the patriarch of Constanti-_ 
nople and the pope of Rome until 1054. Each party 
then excommunicated the other, and the breach 
between the different parts of the Church became 
irreparable. The Greek Church held and still holds 
that the Spirit proceeds from the Father only. There 
were other differences which still remain, but the 
Filiogue has been called the chief doctrinal differ- 
ence between the Eastern and Western churches. 


CHAPTER III 


PERIOD OF TRANSITION, 1400 TO 1500 A. D. 


Thus far, thought concerning the Holy Spirit had 
been directed to his nature and his relations in Deity. 
What further thought had been given to the subject 
largely concerned the past operations of the Holy 
Spirit. His present functions in the divine Economy 
and in the world had been almost entirely neglected. 
In fact, some writers apparently failed to see any 
need of the Holy Spirit, beyond filling the proper 
place in the creed. 

Dorner® points out the fact that in the Greek 
Church Christianity had come to be considered as 
intellectualism ; and in the Latin Church it was, owing 
to a greater moral earnestness, a matter of will, which 
degenerated into external discipline. While the reli- 
gious life in the Greek Church ceased to develop, that 
in Western and Central Europe deepened in the 
minds of believers, partly, if not wholly, through a 
longing for conscious reconciliation with God. With- 
out doubt, a desire for the holy character which 
belongs to the state of reconciliation had influence. 
The Latin Church firmly maintained that holiness 
essentially belongs to the idea of the Christian Church, 


PERIOD OF TRANSITION, 1400 TQ 1500 4. D. 69 


This “idea of the holiness of the Church became 
more and more dissociated from the moral holiness 
of the individual person, by reason of the opinion. 
that the Church possesses inalienable holiness by 
means of the sacraments,—in the last instance, 
through the sacrament of sacraments, ordination.” ‘ 
The ordained and ordaining clergy became the point 
of Christendom with which the Holy Spirit is insepa- 
rably connected, and from which he can never with- 
draw. Here was repeated an ancient heathen idea 
of the relation which acts of worship duly performed 
bear to God’s presence and favor. The old pagan 
idea of correct ritual in augury seemed necessarily 
bound to the soil of Rome and pervaded the new 
religion, as it had the old. According to this theory, 
the only class of men possessed of the Holy Spirit 
consists at all times of the clergy, who also administer 
the powers of consecration and the gifts of grace. 
“That ordination renders the ordained good men is 
not, indeed, asserted; but nevertheless the office is 
made to enjoy inalienably the possession of the Holy 
Spirit, and mankind as connected with the clergy 
by obedience is connected with the Holy Spirit, 
and is therefore holy Christendom. But here we 
have again (so to speak) a material instead of an 
ethical divine holiness.’8 Thus the Roman priest- 
~ hood had claimed the place of the Holy Spirit, so 
that to other Christians was denied the right to come 
into communion with the Holy Spirit, but, instead, 


70 THE SUPREME LEADER 


they must have recourse to the priesthood, who 
claimed to control the treasures of grace, as though 
being full owners of them. | 

During this century there were movements of 
thought among Christians which revealed the stir- 
rings of a truer apprehension of the relation of the 
Holy Spirit to individual Christians. Such senti- 
ments had been present in the mystical theology of the 
“Middle Ages. Mysticism is liable to degenerate into 
subjective feelings, which often are not easily distin- 
guished from those emotions which spring from the 
influence of the Holy Spirit. As mysticism and the 
Roman Church alike claimed the Holy Spirit they 
were alike driven to the Scriptures. Occasionally a 
thinker, like John Wessel? (*1419, $1489), gave the 
Holy Spirit his true relation to the Scriptures, and 
recognized him as the agent in securing a pure tra- 
dition of saving truth, and in the transformation of 
the individual life. 


CHAP LE Realy 
THE CENTURY OF THE: REFORMATION 


That upheaval of religious life known as the Refor- 
mation introduced a great change in the conscious 
attitude of believers toward the Holy Spirit. It was a 
Day of Jehovah when there came into open activity 
operations which God had been carrying on in the 
hearts of men during the ages. If any feature is to 
be claimed as especially characteristic of that age, it 
was the determination to attain peace of mind 
through conscious reconciliation with God. This 
peace could not be found by accepting the priest- 
hood as the substitute for the Holy Spirit. The idea 
that the gifts and presence of the Holy Spirit be- 
- longed to the Church, and were mediated through the 
Church to the individual, might possibly once have 
had a good pedagogic. purpose. If such had. ever 
been the case, that time, to say the least, was pass- 
ing. At best, the idea was similar to the conception 
of Israel’s sonship, which appears in the Old Testa- 
ment, a conception which prepared the way for that 
of individual and direct sonship. 

The peace of mind sought by the Reformers was 
found only by coming into direct relations with God. 


= ee 


72 THE SUPREME LEADER 


By so doing, they came to a sense of certainty 
through the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit, as- 
suring them alike of the truth of Scripture and the 
forgiveness of sins. The inner needs and experi- 
ences of the Reformers led them to thrust aside the 
claim of the Roman Catholic clergy to be the sole 
mediators between God and man and to control the 
blessings of salvation. It was because the Roman 
Catholic clergy pressed this claim that the Reformers 
threw aside the churchly authority which the clergy 
attempted to enforce. In the words of Luther, the 
truth was learned that “the Holy Spirit is the vicar 
of Christ, there is no other.” . The utterances of 
Luther and Calvin and the crystallization of Protes- 
tant thought, as recorded in certain creeds, deserves 
to be carefully noted. 

1.oLuther™ taught thatthe Holy..Spiritcis, the 
author of Scripture, that by interpreting Scripture 
and attesting it, he leads men; he applies the law, 
awakens faith, secures the Christian life and perfects 
it, working. in the heart by means of the Word and 
sacraments. _ 

It will be seen that Luther held that the Holy 
Spirit was efficient in preparing men for the regener- 
ate life in its inception and in its progress. He 
taught that the regenerate life was a life of faith. 
For Luther, faith was a living and active element in 
the life, for it overcomes doubt and temptation, it 
transforms the life into Christlikeness and impels to 


THE CENTURY OF THE REFORMATION 73 


good works. Faith is thus living and active, because 
of the power of the Spirit, dwelling in the heart of 
the believer. 

The Holy Spirit prepares for conversion. After ¢ 
conversion he exercises his characteristic office of 
drawing men close to God and giving them a bliss- 
ful sense of fellowship with God. Of course, the 
Holy Spirit cannot-be present in this manner before 
conversion. At that stage he uses the law, showing 
men their sin, their danger and need of salvation. 
The word of Christ, 2. e., the offer of salvation, ts 
external. The work of the Holy Spirit, impressing 
this word upon the heart, is internal, and it secures the 
faith of the Christian which is the principle of his life. 

These operations are carried on by the Holy 
Spirit through the external agency of the Word, the 
sacraments and the Church. The Spirit secures the 
receptivity of the heart to the revelation through 
Scripture. Luther knew no other divine revela- 
tion. The Spirit and the Word do their work to- 
ecther,’ not separately. “. The /Spitit.-has. no mother 
instrument of revelation, the Word has no power 
apart from the Spirit. He uses also the sacraments 
as means of grace, and has instituted the Church, by 
which Luther means the whole body of Christian 
believers, in order to preach the Word and admin- 
ister the sacraments. The Holy Spirit-also~ gives 
efficacy.to the means employed by the Church. 

The Holy Spirit works in the heart of the believer 


74 THE SUPREME LEADER 


the conviction that the Word which is accepted is 
the Word of God. In like manner the Church, which 
can originate no new offers of salvation, has, by the 
iNumination of the Spirit, an inner apprehension in 
the judgment of doctrine, which it cannot demon- 
strate, but which is accompanied by a sense of 
certainty. 

The life of faith is based upon forgiveness and a 
full trust in the mercy of God, and upon the bestowal 
of the Holy Spirit in order to work against the sins 
of the flesh. As God works by his omnipotence in 
the creation, so he works by the Spirit of grace in 
his justified ones. 

21 Coordinated with the teachings of Luther in 
the development of Protestant thought were the 
teachings of Calvin. There are three points in his 
teaching respecting the Holy Spirit which deserve 
notice: the Trinity, the work of the Spirit in 
renewal and sanctification, including his testimony 
to the sonship of believers, and the /esdemoneum 
Spiritus Sanctt tnternum, or the internal testimony 
of the Holy Spirit to the truth of the Scriptures and 
so to their divine authority. 

a. It is said that Calvin’s exposition of the Trinity 
“is undoubtedly the best and most careful which 
can be found in the-writings of the Reformers.” ? It 
is certainly a sober and reverent exposition of the 
orthodox doctrine.” 

6. As to the work of the Holy Spirit in the pata 


a“ 


THE CENTURY OF THE REFORMATION 75 


tion of men, Calvin taught that the work of God in 
Christ is freely offered to us in the Gospel, but it 
can be of no use to us unless we are brought into 
union with Christ. This union takes place by “ the 
secret energy of the Holy Spirit, by whom we are 
introduced to the enjoyment of Christ and all his 
benefits.” The secret energy of the Holy Spirit 
is a cleansing of the polluted soul and an invigora- 
tion toward pure and righteous living. By it 
believers are joined to Christ and made one with 
him so as to enjoy him. The Spirit accomplishes 
his work by producing faith in the heart of a 
believer. This is his principal work and “the only 
medium by which he leads us into the light of the 
gospel,” and it is produced by him alone. This 
‘faith consists in a knowledge of God and of 
Christ”; 15 it may be incomplete, and will be so 
“till we are divested of the flesh.” ‘ Now-we shall 
have a complete definition of faith, if we say that it 
is a steady and certain knowledge of the divine 
benevolence toward us, which being founded in a 
gratuitous promise in Christ, is both revealed to our 
minds and confirmed to our hearts by the Holy 
Spirit.’ 16 At the foundation of this faith is ‘“‘a per- 
suasion of the divine veracity.” The immediate 
basis of this faith is the revealed Word of God, in 
connection with God’s calling of the soul, which con- 
sists in the presentation of the gospel truth accompa- 
nied by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. 


76 THE SUPREME LEADER 


“The knowledge of faith consists more in cer- 
tainty than in comprehension.” In producing this 
certainty “the Spirit acts as a seal to seal on our 
hearts those very promises, the certainty of which 
he has impressed on our minds, and serves as an 
earnest to confirm and establish them.’ It is in 
such activity that the inner witness of the Spirit to 
our divine sonship comes to the knowledge of the 
believer. It is by the presence of the fruits of the 
Spirit in the believer’s life that the outer witness is 
made to the world. 7 

Calvin does not answer the question as to the 
psychological processes in which the Holy Spirit 
was active, when illuminating a man’s mind while 
calling upon him to accept the gospel, or when 
bringing certainty to the heart of him who has 
accepted it. When one reads the presentation of 
Calvin, it is difficult not to regard his psychology as 
mechanical rather than personal. The chief reasons 
are that a doctrine of genuine freedom of the will is 
denied by him; that the persuasion or minor illu- 
mination granted to many who are unsaved seems 
illusory and unreal, in spite of Calvin’s attempt to 
save the sincerity of the Holy Spirit; that there is 
apparently no conception of the presence and activ- 
ity of the Spirit apart from connection with the 
Scriptures, and that the conception of faith is pre- 
dominantly intellectual. This onesidedness of the 
conception of faith is not balanced by the addition 


THE CENTURY OF THE REFORMATION 77 


of the element of certainty, and must be regarded as 
less correct than Luther’s idea of faith. 

c. The relation of the Holy Spirit to the Word of 
God was treated by Calvin in a most excellent man- 
ners 

He denies that the Scripture depends upon any 
human medium for its authority. “But there has~ 
very generally prevailed a’ most pernicious error, 
that the Scriptures have only so much weight as is 
conceded to them by the suffrages of the Church; 
as though the eternal and inviolate truth of God 
depended upon the arbitrary will of man; for thus 
with great contempt of the Holy Spirit they inquire, 
who can assure us that God is the Author of them?” 

Therefore Calvin denies that the Church has power 
to fix or define the Canon. Rather he teaches that 
the Church was founded from the beginning on the 
writings of the prophets and the teachings of the 
apostles, and when the Church receives Scripture 
‘and seals it with her suffrage, she does not authen- 
ticate a thing otherwise dubious or controvertible ; 
but knowing it to be the truth of God, performs an 
act of piety, treating it with immediate veneration.” 

He shows that the testimony which the Church 
properly gave to Scripture is introductory, not final. 


Augustine had said: ‘In fact, I would not believe 
the gospel unless the authority of the Catholic 
Church induced me to do so.” [go vero evan- 


gelio non crederem, nisi me catholice eccleste com- 


78 THE SUPREME LEADER 


moveret auctoritas.| The Roman Catholics used 
this declaration of Augustine as indisputable proof 
that the Church’s testimony was conclusive and final. 
Calvin showed that the testimony of the Church was 
persuasive for unbelievers, while Augustine himself 
held that later he acquired an understanding of what 
he believed: ‘Our mind being now internally 
strengthened and illuminated, not by man but by 
God himself.” Calvin adds that it is evident that 
Augustine held that “the authority of the Church is 
an introduction to prepare us for the gospel.” 

Calvin holds that the certain conviction of the 
divine origin of the Holy Scriptures is due to the 
testimony of the Spirit alone. _ In the case of the 
prophets and apostles there was a certainty that they 
had a message from God. This certainty came from 
‘“a higher source than human reasons or judgments 
or conjectures, even from the secret testimony of 
the Spirit” [ab arcano testimonio Spiritus |. While 
Calvin held that the rational proofs of the divinity 
of Scripture are valuable, these alone are insufficient 
to “fix in-their hearts that assurance which is essen- 
tial to true piety. Religion appearing to profane 
men to consist wholly in opinion, in order that 
they may not believe anything on foolish or slight 
srounds, they wish and expect it to be proved by 
rational arguments that Moses and the prophets 
spoke by divine inspiration. But I reply, that the 
testimony of the Spirit is superior to all reason. 


THE CENTURY OF THE REFORMATION 79 


For as God alone isa sufficient witness of himself 
in his own Word, so also the Word will never gain 
credit in the hearts of men, till it be confirmed by 
the internal testimony of the Spirit [¢zderrore Spirt- 
tus test?monto|. It is necessary, therefore, that the 
same Spirit who spake by the mouth of the proph- 
ets should penetrate into our hearts, to convince us 
that they faithfully delivered the oracles which were 
divinely~<entrusted to them . . . till he [the 
Holy Spirit] illuminates their minds they are perpetu- 
ally‘fluctuating amidst a multitude of doubts.” “The 
Scriptures will then only be effectual to produce the 
saving knowledge of God, when the certainty of it 
shall be founded in the internal persuasion of the 
Holy: Spirit” [znterzorz ea Sancit persua- 
stone |. 

Finally, Calvin declares the necessity of using the 
Scriptures in order to learn the mind of the Spirit. 
An argument so strenuous as that given by Calvin, 
making it possible for each individual to derive his 
convictions in regard to divine truth directly from 
the Holy Spirit, is liable to perversion, and had 
already been grievously perverted. He denies that 
the work of the Holy Spirit is intended to supersede 
the office of Scripture. ‘The office of: the Spirit, 
then, which is promised to us is not to feign new 
and.unheard-of revelations, or to coin a new system 
of doctrine, which would seduce us from the received 
system of the gospel; but to seal to our minds the 


80 THE SUPREME LEADER 


same doctrine which the gospel delivers.’ From 
‘this fact Calvin derived the necessity of a diligent 
study of the Scriptures in order to learn the mind of 
the Spirit. In reply to the objection that it was 
unworthy of the Spirit of God, to whom all things 
ought to be subject, to be made subject to the Scrip- 
ture, Calvin retorts, “As though it were ignomin- 
ious to the Holy Spirit to be everywhere equal and 
uniform, in all things invariably consistent with him- 
self.” “God did not publish his Word to mankind 
for the sake of momentary ostentation, with a design 
to destroy or annul it immediately on the advent of 
the Spirit. But he afterwards sent the same Spirit, by 
whose agency he had dispensed his Word, to complete 
his work by the efficacious confirmation of that Word.” 

3. The views of the Reformers were published in 
various official statements, such as the Augsburg 
Confession, A, D.- 1530, and’ the other Protestant 
creeds of the following thirty years.% They care- 
fully reaffirm the doctrine of the ancient creeds re- 
specting the Holy Spirit, whether by reference to 
the creeds by name, or by a distinct statement of the 
deity and relations of the Holy Spirit. They took 
great care to show that in the doctrines respecting 
God they were at one with the ancient Church. -In 
accord with the Roman Catholic Church they held 
the /zdzogue. In addition to the Nicene statement 
respecting the Holy Spirit, they attributed to him 
the authorship of the Scriptures, which they call the 


THE CENTURY OF THE REFORMATION 81 


sword of the Spirit. They called him the witness to 
the truth of Scripture and its sole interpreter: ~ Of 
course the object of these expressions was to sub- 
stitute the Scripture for the Church, as the means of 
ascertaining the mind of the Spirit. Further state- 
ments were that the operations of the Holy Spirit 
are essential to holiness; that he is the sole source of 
any good actions which men may perform; that he is 
present when they are performed; that he uses faith 
as an instrument of enlightenment and sanctification, 
and that he uses the sacraments as an‘ external vehi- 
cle of inward operation. 

In general, the reforming position was that the 
gifts of the Holy Spirit and his presence are direct 
and individual, not indirect and general. The recog- 
nition of the offices of the Spirit included potentially, 
though not explicitly, nearly all the elements of the 
faith of the Protestant churches from that time to the 
present. 

4. Over against the teachings of the Protestants, 
the Council of Trent, in 1563, published some state- 
ments of the Roman Catholic position which were 
formulated under the stress of controversy. The 
chief difference as regards the Holy Spirit is two- 
fold: The Declaration of Trent affirms that the sac- 
raments have value in themselves; and that the 
Church possesses truth which has been preserved by 
tradition, the Church alone having authority within 
itself to proclaim that truth. 

7 


82 THE SUPREME LEADER 


5. The new discovery of the essential principle of 
the gospel—a gift of free grace—must of necessity 
have opened the way fora modification of the con- 
ception of every truth of the religious life which was 
related to this one. Among these truths were the 
relation of the Holy Spirit to the inception of the 
Christian life, and his relation to the religious knowl- 
edge of the believer. The discussion of these sub- 
jects was attended by heated controversies in which . 
theology was mistaken for religion, and good men 
did many works of Satan, while thinking and talking 
about the offices of the Holy Spirit; yet during that 
period, as always, the Spirit brooded over the chaos, 
developing order and leading men into the truth, so 
far as they had the capacity for going. This great 
outburst of spiritual life in the first half.of these 
teenth century had, from the outset, much that was 
unspiritual mingled with it. It could not have been 
otherwise, for it was progress under the limitations 
of human nature. During ‘Luther’s lifetime, some 
jealousies and antagonisms were held in abeyance by 
‘his commanding personality. The twenty-five years 
immediately after his death, in 1545, exhibit a min- 
gling of ecclesiastical and theological jealousy with zeal 
for individual forms of holding the truth. So wretched 
was the resulting condition that it compelled an at- 
tempt to harmonize the discords. The outcome was 
the Formula of Concord ” (1576-1584), in which an 
attempt was made to close several controversies. 


THE CENTURY OF THE REFORMATION 83 


The synergistic controversy had raged around the 
method of the operation of the Holy Spirit in the 
inception of the Christian life. In the Reformation 
movement, the material principle recognized was that ’ 
of justification by faith, and it was understood to 
imply the impossibility of earning salvation. The 
fact of this impossibility was stated in various ways, 
largely in the direction of the utter impotence of 
man to perform any good action of himself. It is 
not strange that controversy should arise over such a 
point, when the permanent relation of the Holy Spirit 
to man had not been drawn from Scripture by scien- 
tific exegesis. Extreme statements provoked dis- 
sent, and dissenting statements grew into controversy. 
And still another reason for controversy existed; 
there was an imperfect discrimination between regen- 
eration and conversion. (This discrimination is said 
to have been formally stated first by Turretin, 1680). 
It must be added that a truly ethical conception of 
the activities of the human soul does not seem to 
have been present. The question under controversy 
is thus stated: “What manner of powers since the 
fall of our first parents, he [man] has of himself in 
spiritual things antecedently to regeneration, whether 
by his own proper powers, before he has been regen- 
erated by the Spirit of God, he can receive and appre- 
hend the divine grace (which is offered through the 
Holy Spirit in the Word and sacraments divinely in- 
stituted) or not.” 


84 THE SUPREME LEADER 


The answer of the Formula of Concord is that the 
Holy Spirit uses means for conversion, he regener- 
ates not without means and, when present with the 
hearing of the Word, he “ opens the hearts of men in 
order that they may diligently attend and thus may 
be converted, by the sole grace and power of the 
Holy Spirit, whose work, and whose work alone, the 
conversion of man is.” The opinions that man might 
accomplish his own conversion, or begin it, or co- 
operate after the Holy Spirit has begun it, were 
emphatically rejected as errors. In like manner the 
Formula rejected the opinion of the “ enthusiasts i 
who held “that God immediately, apart from the 
hearing of the Word of God, and without the use of 
the sacraments, draws men to himself, enlightens 
them, justifies and saves them.” 

6. So far as creeds are concerned, there has been 
little substantial advance upon the Reformation sym- ° 
bols. The Reformers recognized the redemptive 
work of the Spirit as taught in the Scripture, the 
executive work of the Spirit as the agent of the 
divine providence, and his work in the sanctification 
and illumination of individuals. During the century 
subsequent to the Formula of Concord, the Conti- 
nental theologians stated and restated the Reforma- 
tion principle known as the testimontum Spiritus 
Sanctt internum2) It is customary to speak of the 
authority of the Scriptures as the formal principle of 
the Reformation. 


THE CENTURY OF THE REFORMATION 85 


The internal testimony of the Holy Spirit is a doc- 
trine which traces the authority of the Scripture to 
its source in the Spirit of God, and so makes the ? 
Spirit the authority. He alonewho vouches for a doc-_ 
ument and interprets it, is the sole authority concern- 
ing that of which the document treats. The Church | 
could give external testimony and secure a historical 
faith; the various notes or criteria of the divine origin 
of the Scriptures could produce the same result, but 
both together could not secure an inner and saving 
faith. This the theologians taught was produced by 
the Holy Spirit alone, who authenticated to believers 
the redemptive teachings in Scripture and produced 
an inward certainty of their truth. The power to do 
this work is not in the Church, nor has it ever been 
given to the Church. 

The statement of this doctrine found in the works 
of Hollaz™ seems to be as complete in its definition 
of the Zestzmontum Spiritus Sancti internum and in 
its statement of its mode, as can easily be found. 

“What is the principal or ultimate reason for 
_ knowledge and belief with divine faith in the divine 
origin of Holy Scripture ? 

“The internal testimony of the Holy Spirit inform- 
ing the human heart and testifying to it is the princi- 
pal and ultimate reason for knowing and believing with 
divine faith the divine origin of the Holy Scripture. 

“What is here understood by the internal testi- 
mony of the Holy Spirit? 


86 THE SUPREME LEADER 


«By the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit is 
here understood a supernatural act of the Holy 
Spirit who, after having communicated his own divine 
energy to the Holy Scriptures, strives, opens, illumin- 
ates and turns the heart of a man to the obedience of 
faith through the medium of the Word attentively 
read or heard, so that a man being illuminated by 
internal spiritual motions may perceive that the Word 
presented to him has come from God himself, and so 
may yield to it his undisturbed assent.” 

In exposition of this definition, Hollaz says: 
“ The internal testimony of the Holy Spirit concern- 
ing the authenticity of Holy Scripture coincides as to 
substance with the efficacy of Holy Scripture seen in 
subsequent conduct. 5o far as the Holy Scriptures, 
attentively read and carefully meditated, illumines the 
‘ntellect of a-man so that he clearly recognizes its 
Georvevatiav, and draws and allures his will to con- 
sent, this very thing the Spirit accomplishes by 
means of the Word of God properly used; for the 
efficient energy which we ascribe to the Word of 
God in producing the result of illumination, conver- 
sion, renovation, confirmation, is truly divine (Rom. 
1: 16), and does not differ as to substance from the 
energy of the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of men ; 
although there is a difference in the mode of wielding 
this power, inasmuch as that which belongs to the Holy 
Spirit from himself as principal cause belongs to the 
Word participatively as the instrumental cause.” 


THE CENTURY OF THE REFORMATION 87 


In further proof of his position Hollaz, on the basis 
Ole vets one se ore Owiey LO. Uti 1b ness a1 6, 
says: “ As often as the divine word of the law and 
gospel is attentively read or heard, a teachable man 
perceives its heart-stirring force, and gathers from 
internal acts of his heart and supernatural motions 
that God is speaking with him. Those acts, so far 
as the-intellect is concerned, are the, risen light~ of 
supernatural knowledge and inspired holy thought; 
so far as the will is concerned, they are spiritual. mo- 
tions of grief for sin; desire to learn and progress; 
pious love toward a revealing God; a sweet inclina- 
tion to enjoin on the intellect already enlightened 
with some spiritual light, an unshaken assent to the 
things which are to be believed; spiritual joy.” 

Hollaz notes three opinions opposed to this doc- 
trine; those of the Roman Catholics, of the Socin- 
ians and of the Arminians. The Roman Catholics 
called the Spirit, to whom appeal was made in order 
to confirm by infallible testimony the divine author- 
ity of the Scriptures, a private spirit and derided the 
testimonium Spiritus Sancti enternum as the contri- 
vance. of/men. . The: Socinians, since they held that 
the divine origin of Holy Scripture cannot be infalli- 
bly demonstrated, passed by the doctrine in silence. 
The Arminians denied its necessity, teaching that it 
can be known that the Scriptures are of divine origin. 

In the time of MHollaz, Protestant theologians 
seemed to fear nothing so much as the possibility of 


88 THE SUPREME LEADER 


_ encouraging “enthusiasm,” by which was understood 
the conceit of having direct divine inspiration, and 
revelations independent of the Scriptures, and indeed 
of all external media from God. Consequently Hol- 
laz denied direct communications from the Holy 
Spirit, and held only to such as were mediated 
through the written Word of God and were adapted to 
the conditions then present. It was through this 
dread of ‘‘ enthusiasm,” of being confounded with the 
“enthusiasts” and of incurring the charge of encour- 
aging the fanatical sects of that time, that Protestants 
gradually let the doctrine of the internal testimony of 
the Holy Spirit pass into forgetfulness. A Luther or 
a Calvin could hold this great truth without fear of 
danger, for these men had a deep Christian experi- 
ence, a sense of personal relationship with God and 
mighty convictions of truth. Later, when the re- 
ligious life of the theologians was less fervid, and 
when theology had become a scholastic exercise, it 
was not strange that men became deaf to the Spirit 
and distrusted his internal testimony. The doctrine 
became formal and the words in which it was stated 
were like algebraic symbols. 


CEA TE haw 
PERVERSIONS OF THE TRUTH. 1500-1700 


The evils of mysticism and enthusiasm were inev- 
itable~ to. the ‘reforming movement. —<Phey~had 
existed long before the Reformation. They were in 
part a protest against such evils as the Reformers 
combated. While the great leaders of the Reforma- 
tion were mainly characterized by sobriety and rev- 
erence, there were many of their contemporaries who 
opposed the evils needing correction with neither 
sobriety nor reverence. When the authority of the 
Church was broken down, the unspiritual or 1mma- 
ture, whose conduct, like that of Korah, Dathan and 
Abiram, showed that they were fit only for tutelage, 
broke out into excesses. When they no longer felt 
the restraint of the Church, the immature and the 
unspiritual alike had no ability to discriminate be- 
tween those impulses which were purely subjective 
and those inner movements which were stirred by the 
Holy Spirit. The immature who were of a spiritual 
temper often “went off into excesses of religious 
fanaticism. This was that enthusiasm which ap- 
pealed to the Spirit, regardless of Scripture, and 
whose spirit was merely the projection of subjective 


go THE SUPREME LEADER 


feelings and moods, to the exclusion of objective 
reality and standards. The unspiritual may have 
been led from worldly motives to participate in the 
outward forms of religious fanaticism, but their nat- 
ural tendency was toward rationalism. This is an 
ignoring of the Spirit as an objective guide in the 
study of objective truth, and the adoption of sub- 
jective intellectual operations of the individual mind 
as the standard by which to measure religious reali- 
ties. Rationalism, if religious, naturally became 
scholasticism; if not religious, its tendency was 
toward naturalism. By reason of its ignoring the 
highest facts of human experiencé, rationalism is no 
more reasonable than the enthusiast’s appeal to the 
Spirit, without regard to the objective record of the 
mind of the Spirit in Scripture. Both alike are as 
subjective as Protagoras. 


) 


The danger of “ enthusiasm” was recognized from 
the outset, and an attempt was made to guard 
against it, as has been seen from the utterances of 
Calvin. The peril appeared so early in the Reforma- 
tion movement that it compelled Luther to return 
from the Wartburg, March, 1522, in order to meet 
and overcome the Wittenberg fanaticism by which 
Carlstadt had been swept away. It seems that the 
so-called Anabaptists antagonized the early Reform- 
ers for not having gone far enough. In part, their 
conceptions were right; for instance, those in regard 
to the proper relation of Church and State, which in 


PERVERSIONS OF THE TRUTH gI 


this country we have learned conduce most fully to 
the well-being of each. Even in relation to this 
matter, the Anabaptists’ sense of historical evolution 
and of the essential nature of evangelical develop- 
ment was so defective that they could see no way to 
secure reform save by beginning with the.wholesale 
destruction of existing institutions. For them, Chris- 
tianity in its complete result was outward rather 
than inward. This defect in historical consciousness 
and lack of the perception of objective basis for true 
srowth also appeared in their putting Scripture 
aside at the fancied dictation of the Spirit. Carl- 
stadt’s error was in setting the “internal testimony 
of the Holy Spirit in direct opposition to the exter- 
nal testimony of the Scriptures.” Without the 
standard of the Scripture, without the evidence given 
by the normal type of humanity and by experience 
molded by the Holy Spirit, there is no safeguard 
against subjectivity. The prophets at Zwickau held 
that “ not the word of Scripture, but the Holy Spirit 
was to be the principle of the Reformation; not only 
everything ecclesiastical, but also everything civil 
was to be spiritualized and reorganized.’** They 
were too deficient in anything like scientific percep- 
tion to realize the possibility of the Holy Spirit's 
working through Scripture. 

Under the stress of controversy, and pressed by 
the challenge of the Roman Catholics to produce an 
authoritative standard which was objective and ex- 


- 


92 THE, SUPREME LEADER 


_ ternal, the Protestants developed a one-sided reliance 
upon Scripture as meeting the condition demanded. 
Also, probably under the stress of the reaction 
against the spurious spirituality of the “ enthusiasts,” 
there came to be an undervaluation of the Holy 
Spirit in his relations to Scripture and to the life of 
the believer. After the first half-century of the 
Reformation, the power of the religious life waned. 
The sense of personal need became less dominant 
than with Luther and his generation. Protestantism, 
as doctrine, became scholastic; as life, it became 
political, and the consciousness of the Holy Spirit as 
a living, personal helper became dimmed, the inter- 
nal relation of the Holy Spirit and his power over 
the heart was underestimated. Externality of relig- 
ious observance began to prevail, rather than inter- 
nality of life. By 1600 the scholastic current had 
strongly set in. By 1700 the vital element of the 
Reformation had apparently lost its power. 


Chal bE Riv 
THE PURITAN FAITH IN ENGLAND. 1600-1700 


In England, the Puritan movement was attended by | 
the very errors which harassed the Reformation move- 
ment on the continent. Personal piety continued to 
characterize the leaders among the Puritans and the 
bulk of their followers, until a much later time than 
on the continent, and the errors did not work their 
mischief so early, Puritan thinkers made a vigorous 
effort to work outa true doctrine of the Holy Spirit 
in his relation to the individual. On this subject the 
writings of John Goodwin, John Owen, John Howe 
and Richard Baxter are especially valuable. 

John Goodwin’s discussion,” starting from Eph. 5: 
18, was a development of the doctrine that men 
should ‘‘ take such a course, go so to work, as we use 
to say, and so behave themselves that the Holy Spirit 
might be very unctuous, operative and vigorous, and 
put forth himself or his power abundantly in them.” 
The author's idea was that God has constituted, by 
eternal law, a gracious law and decree, usages and 
conditions which might be taken advantage of, as 
the laws of nature are used, to gain the fulness of 
the Spirits -Flere.is the. evidence of a) spirits truly 
scientific in the consideration of the subject. 


94 THE SUPREME LEADER 


With abundant argument the reasons for being 
filled with the Spirit are given. One of the most 


important noted is the need of the Spirit for the sake 


of efficiency in Christian activity. 

The following are the principal criteria by which 
the presence of the Spirit in a person may be recog- 
nized: (a) When one is unselfishly responsive to 
the needs of the Kingdom of God, placing it above 
his own pleasure or convenience. (b) When that 
which is ‘unholy in a person’s life is greatly de- 
pressed,” and (c) the person shows a positively and 
uniformly holy life and frame of mind. (d) When 
men are much intent upon heavenly things and 
works. (e) When they sow plentifully to the Spirit, 
7. €., “to live in such ways, to perform such actions, 
and these frequently and constantly, . . - from 
whence the Spirit of God may have acknowledg- 
ment, honor and praise amongst men in the world.” 
(f) When a man ‘is able and willing—they are 
both one in this case—to take up any cross, though 
never so heavy, that he shall meet withal in the way 
of righteousness and of God, without any declining 
or turning aside out of his way to avoid its? (ey Tt 
is “discernible by the rich and inward acquaintance 
with the mind and will of God, and of Jesus Christ 
in the Scripture.” 

It is worthy of note that Goodwin did not omit to 
vindicate the deity of the Holy Spirit. 

Among the benefits of being filled with the Spirit 


THE PURITAN FAITH IN ENGLAND 95 
* 


is a large and free communion with God. Of this he 
says, communion is “an inward or spiritual converse 
or interchange of the soul with God, or a recourse 
making unto God upon all occasions for direction, 
help or comfort from him, together with a readiness 
in God to correspond in all such occasions as these.” 
Free communion is “with a liberty and freedom of 
spirit, with a princelike boldness, without any mix- 
ture or touch of fear, of that kind of fear that hath 
POrment in-it; “when aman, hath’ no stand -in his 
faith, but is able to‘cry out aloud.» . .. without 
any faltering or fainting, Abba, Father.” 

Large communion is ‘‘when a man or woman hath 
further dealing with God than ordinary, when by rea- 
son of the largeness of a man’s knowledge of him, 
and of his nature and counsels, he hath the opportu- 
nity of treating with him about more particulars, and 
receiving answers from him touching more particu- 
lars likewise; and, consequently, as his knowledge 
of God increaseth, so his communion with God is 
enlarged and advanced accordingly.” 

This work of Goodwin’s may not have been in- 
fluential in molding contemporary thought. The 
decadent fortunes of Puritanism doubtless limited its 
influence. It certainly marks an epoch in the prog- 
ress of the comprehension of the relation of the Holy 
Spirit to the Christian life. On its own peculiar 
theme, it is without a peer in Christian literature. 

A far more famous and bulky work is that of John 


96 THE SUPREME LEADER 


ol 


Owen. In this, it is stated that the subject of the 
Holy Spirit is important because: 

First; “The doctrine of the Spirit of God, his work 
and grace, is the second great head or principle of 
those gospel truths wherein the glory of God and 
the good of the souls of men are most eminently 
concerned.” The first great head concerns the Son. 
(a) Christ promised to send the Holy Spirit to 
supply his absence. (b) The Holy Spirit guides 
in the dispensation and administration of the gospel. 
(c) All spiritual and saving good is communicated 
by him alone. (d) Sin against him is peculiarly 
remediless. 

Second; There has been great deceit and abuse, in 
all ages of the Church, under the pretense of the 
name and work of the Spirit. . 

Third; These days there is an anti-spirit which 
men call the light within them. 

Fourth; Many hurtful and noxious opinions re- 
specting the Spirit have gone abroad in the world, 
such as the denial of his deity and personality. 

Fifth; “The open and horrible opposition that is 
made to the Spirit of God and his work in the 
world.” 

Of course Owen vindicated the deity and person- 
ality of the Spirit. He also taught that the functions 
of the Holy Spirit are the “concluding,” “ complet- 
ing,” and “effecting acts of the deity,’ and these are 
both of nature and of grace. In nature, the Spirit 


® 


_ THE PURITAN FAITH IN ENGLAND Q7 


gave power to inanimate nature toward order, form 
and beauty. In animate nature, he produced soul in 
man, and gave moral capacity. 

In grace the Holy Spirit wrought preparatory to 
redemption, in the hearts of men; by special opera- 
tions of the nature of revelation and heightening 
natural capacities, he enabled men to work with 
respect to the coming of Christ. In the progress of 
redemption he is given freely to secure the regenera-_ 
tion and sanctification of men. He qualified Jesus 
Christ for his work, he now bears witness of Jesus 
Christ, and gives power to men so as to make their 
witness effective. 

In regeneration he is the principal efficient cause. 
In sanctification he creates the new creation. Among 
his functions is that of illumination, convincing that 
the Scriptures are a supernatural revelation, and giv- 
ing all understanding of the same, for they are now 
the sole external means of divine supernatural illumi- 
nation. Another function is that of the impartation 
of discernment. ‘The principal efficient cause of 
the due knowledge and understanding of the will of 
God in the Scriptures is the Holy Spirit of God him- 
self alone.” This work of Owen’s is a perfect store- 
house for one discussing the subject. 

In the writings of Richard Baxter?’ there are many 
scattered statements and suggestions respecting the 
Holy Spirit, but no material addition to the teach- 


ings of Goodwin and Owen. 
8 


938 THE SUPREME LEADER 


One noteworthy declaration of John Howe® de- 
serves recognition: ‘This expression of the personal 
indwelling presence, taken alone, doth not signify 
any peculiar distinguishing privilege of believers 
from others; but what is common to all men and 
creatures. For can we acknowledge God to be om- 
nipresent and deny it of any person of the Godhead ? 
Therefore the Spirit’s personal presence alone does 
not distinguish believers from others, even though 
we suppose that presence to be never so intimate. 
God is all and in all, more inward and intimate to us 
than we are to ourselves; an assertion carrying its 
own evidence so fully in itself, as easily to be trans- 
ferred from the pagan Academy to the Christian 


Church, so as generally to obtain in it,’. “Hesadds 
that the giving of the Spirit imparts in the full sense 
of it two things: ‘“ (a) somewhat real, when he 


vouchsafes to be in us, as the spring and fountain 
of gracious communications, influences and effects 
which are most distinct from himself, and (b) it is a 
oift.” 

In the main, these writers grasped the true rela- 
tions of the Holy Spirit to Christian: life;-r They. set 
forth a more completely developed statement of the 
Reformation principles than is found earlier, and it 
seems that they added some phases of the truth 
which had been little noticed. The Reformers and 
the Puritans together extended the boundaries of 
recognized truth respecting the Holy Spirit, so as to 


FHE PURITAN FAITH: IN ENGLAND Q9 


comprehend all that has since been taught on the 
subject. This does not mean that there has been no 
advance since 1700 in the recognition of truth, for 
what had been taught in secret has since been pro- 
claimed from the housetop, and accepted in the 
Street. Mf 
As on the continent of Europe the close of the 
seventeenth century witnessed a failure to maintain 
the Reformation conception of the Christian life, so 
in England’ there was a similar failure to maintain 
the Puritan apprehension of the truth. Doubtless 
Puritanism, as a religious movement, was discredited 
by Puritanism as a political party. After the Res- 
toration in 1660, Puritans were classed in one cat- 
egory with the ‘enthusiasts,’ the Ranters, the 
Quakers,.the Mugeletonians, the Fifth Monarchy 
men, and the like. Moreover, a blight fell upon 
both the English Church and the Nonconformists. 
There arose a disinclination to pierce to the inner 
realities of the Christian life, and a tendency to 
spend time and strength in questioning about exter- 
nals, visible symbols, and such questions as whether 
members of other communions could be saved. In 
lact, a writer has said, and probably with- truth, of 
the early years of Methodism: “That the Spirit Of 
God had virtually departed from the world was a 
doctrine universally received both by churchmen and 
dissenters. . . . The Bible, or according to another 
theory, the Church, took the place of the Sielorwaees 


CHAPTER VII 
THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, 1700-1800 


The dearth of religious life with which the seven- 
teenth century closed was brought to an end by the 
Methodist revival. Among the blessings of this 
revival is the fact that it forced into general recogni- 
tion the truth that the Holy Spirit witnesses to 
believers that they are God’s children. A. perver- 
sion of this truth was a partial basis for some of the 
errors against which the Reformers and Puritans had 
attempted to guard; but it cannot be said that they 
suitably stated the truth. Richard Baxter had 
explicitly limited the witness of the Spirit to the 
fruits of the Spirit. Ifa man found these in his life, 
he had the witness of the Spirit with his spirit that 
he was a son of God (Rom. 8:16). -Ehis' 1s yan 
error into which nothing but prejudice could have 
led a man who had so full knowledge of Christian 
experience. 

Owen promised to discuss the subject, but I have 
failed to find the discussion. His work on the Holy 
Spirit, creat as it is, did not fill out the scheme 
which he proposed at the outsct. Goodwin taught 
that there was a joint testimony of the divine and 


THES AWITNESS 2 OF “THE <SPLRIT Lod 


human spirit, in which the human spirit is confirmed 
in its own declaration of sonship.*! This is nearer 
the truth than Baxter’s statement, but it is not quite 
ihe jtruth, torcin human experience, the; assuratice 
sometimes comes before the human spirit dares to 
bear such testimony. 

In their opinions respecting this subject these 
Puritans were untrue to the early Reformation teach- 
ing which they had received. If Luther could have 
found peace of conscience by the assurances of men, 
he would not have agonized in doubt concerning his 
relations with God. Nothing but a divine assurance 
brought him relief. He taught that by the action of 
the Spirit peace and assurance of salvation spring 
forth from the Scripture truth accepted by the soul. 
mV berever there vis taith:|in (Christ, the: Hloly «Spirit 
works certain, child-like . confidence.” = Calvin, as 
shown above, distinctly recognized this witness of the 
Spirit, and for him it was apparently as external to 
the human spirit as when witnessing to the truth of 
Scripture. When one remembers that the desire to 
know that they were at peace with God was so 
Strong in the religious life of the Reformers, there is 
eround for surprise that almost universal silence 
on this subject prevails in the Reformation creeds. 
I believe they contain no clear reference to the sub- 
ject before the ‘Canons of the Syfiod of Dort, 1619 
A.D. There the witness of the Spirit is made an 
assurance subsidiary to ‘‘the certain persuasion that 


102 THE SUPREME LEADER 


they will ever continue truc and living members of 
the Church, and that they experience forgiveness of 
sins and will at last inherit eternal life.” ” 

The Westminster confession, 1647, does much 
better, giving a whole chapter to the subject “The 
witness of the Spirit is connected with the persever- 
ance of the saints, but the doctrine is stated in a 
manner which recognizes it as having independent 
value for the Christian life. The Westminster 
Shorter Catechism contains merely a casuak, refer- 
ence in the answer to the 36th question and it is 
not adapted to arrest attention and cause reflection 
on this truth. If there had been as pronounced a 
statement as in the Confession or in the answer to 
the Soth question of the Longer Catechism, would 
not the religious life of thousands of believers have 
been more cheerful? Whatever the cause, this truth 
seems never to have obtained a living place in the 
current Protestant conception of the Christian life. 
In fact, it had been so far lost on the continent and 
in England as well, although the teachings of the 
Reformers were nominally accepted, that it had 


come to pass that for the most part the belief in the 


witness of the Spirit was regarded either as a fanat- 
ical delusion or presumption. 

John Wesley is the man to whom the Church uni- 
versal is indebted for the general dissemination of 
this truth and its incorporation into the common 
conception of the Christian life. It is to the 


THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT 103 


Moravians that he in turn was indebted for laying 
upon the truth the stress which he did. _ It is worthy 
of mention that the doctrine was a new one to 
Susannah Wesley, although her father, Dr. Annesley, 
testified that he had had such assurance for forty 
years before his death. She thought it to be the 
privilege of some few Christians rather than of all. 
A Christian democracy is not easily conceived of by 
one born and bred in society saturated with class 
distinctions. The doctrine was theoretically held by 
Wesley before he-came under the direct influence of 
the Moravians. In January, 1733, he said: ‘Those 
who are thus by faith born of God, have also conso- 
lation through hope, this is the next thing which the 
circumcision of the heart implies: even the testimony 
of their own spirit with the Spirit which witnesses in 
their hearts that they are the children of God. In- 
deed it is thesame Spirit who works in them that 
clear and cheerful confidence, that their heart is up- 
right toward God; that good assurance that they do 
now through his grace-the things that are acceptable 
in his sight; that they are ‘now in the path which 
leads to life, and shall by the mercy of God endure 
therein to the end.” ® 

The experience which Tyerman® calls Wesley's 
conversion took place May 24, 1738, five years later 
than the sermon quoted above. As-late as March, 
1739, Wesley, while maintaining the doctrine of the . 
Witness of the Spirit, was obliged to confess that up 


IO4 THE SUPREME LEADER 


to that time it was no part of his experience. He 
taught the doctrine as a privilege of believers, though 
not an essential of the Christian life. 

In a sermon apparently preached in 1747," he 
taught that a person may know of himself that he has 
the marks of the children of God; (a) by his con- 
sciousness of peace with God and of filial love toward 
him, (b) from the fact that antecedent to this con- 
sciousness, and as the ground. of it, there is the per- 
suasion that God loves the man who loves God; 
“©¢We love him because he first’ loved us,’ and we 
cannot know his pardoning love to us till his Spirit 
witnesses it to our spirit.” 

In a sermon preached in 1767 ® Wesley reiterated 
the doctrine and defended it against such objections 
as had been urged against it. Evidently he was 
pressed on the one side by the necessity of holding 
the truth against unreasoning overstatement, anGson 
the other side, to defend himself against the reproach 
of being not different from the ignorant enthusiasts, 
from whom he was trying carefully to separate him- 
self. Wesley’s position was not extreme and could 
not rightly be reproached with extravagance. 

When one recalls the vein of mysticism in the 
thought of Jonathan Edwards, he would think it re- 
markable if there were not some teachings like those 
of Wesley in Edwards’ work on the Religious Affec- 
tions. Yet the passage ® which comes closest to this 
subject looks away from the position of Wesley. The 


THEAWLENESS OF) THE SPIRIT 105 


fact was that, while Edwards was a mystic, he had also 
a rationalistic vein. At heart he was doubtless nearer 
the teaching of Wesley than he seems. The specter 
of “enthusiasm” haunted him as it had haunted his 
Puritan predecessors. He faced the doctrine of an 
‘immediate revelation or suggestion from God,” and 
contended against it. Wesley faced the other way 
and insisted that God does not leave his’ children 
without some assurance beyond that which they can — 
gain by the observation of their own conditon and 
spiritual exercises. 

It is a sign of the lamentable state of the religious 
life in England that the “respectable” Protestant 
Christianity of the earlier part of Wesley’s labors was 
almost wholly agreed in characterizing genuine ac- 
tive piety as enthusiasm. 


Cheek Tick = Vid 
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 


This has been a century of harvesting the truth 
sown in previous centuries. It has been a century of 
more general recognition of truths taught by the 


thinkers of the past. It has been the century of . 


more universal acceptance of truths formerly held by 
the few. The needs of the Christian life have com- 
pelled a more practical recognition of several impor- 
tant truths than had before been accorded to them. 
That which has made this the first modern missionary 
century has. had something to do with bringing the 
Christian churches into a profounder and more per- 
vasive sense of their relation with the Holy Spirit. © In 
addition, the scientific temper of the age has created 
a scientific interest in the subject, with perhaps less 
of prejudice than in some past generations. This 
interest, both trained and untrained, has resulted in 
not a small number of volumes touching on various 
aspects of the subject. . 

Many of the treatises discuss the Biblical data of 
this doctrine, sometimes with care, sometimes par- 
tially or superficially. Yet the least satisfactory of 
the discussions seldom fails in convincing one of the 


THE NINETEENTH _ CENTURY 107 


great importance of looking to the Scriptures as the 
final authority on the subject. 

They show little disposition to compromise the 
historic faith in the deity and personality of the Holy 
Spirit. Sometimes the statements fall into a trithe-’ 
istic tone. It may be impossible, on so difficult a 
theme, to be consistently secure against such an inter- 
pretation. An accurate statement of the truth no 
more permits swerving from a mathematically straight 
line than Mohammed’s bridge to paradise. Fortu- 
nately it is not so disastrous to deviate from exact 
phrasing of the truth as to swerve from that bridge. 
Christian piety and a right purpose often correct de- 
fective statements of truth: 

There have been few attempts to present the his- 
torical stages of the doctrine. This is a mine which 
needs working and will richly repay the student. 

There have been great-gains in the more general 
understanding of the office of the Holy Spirit in the 
Christian life. Considered in all its bearings, no gain 
has been more helpful to the Christian life than the 
acquiescence in the doctrine of the Witness of the 
Spirit to the believer as regards his sonship. The 
needs of the Christian life have secured an advance 
at this point even -as they did in the case of the Re- 
formers. The general acquiescence in this truth has 
been in the face of a rationalistic temper, of the 
dread of fanaticism, and of the desire for an exter- 
nal authority. Under these circumstances the truth 


108 THE SUPREME LEADER 


has been well tested and will not easily pass into 
neglect. Not only has the religious spirit impelled 
to the acceptance of this truth, but it is supported 
by the scientific examination of Scripture.” 

The doctrine of the internal testimony of the Holy 
Spirit may be said to have recovered its place. In 
fact, this is a necessary consequence of the establish- 
ment of the truth just named. The witness of the 
Spirit to the believer's sonship is more fundamental 
than that to Scripture, for without it the believer 
would hardly dare to place full reliance upon 
Scripture. In truth, the experience of the witness to 
sonship must have been far more prevalent historically 
than its recognition. As the doctrine of the internal 
testimony of the Holy Spirit was once the means of 
substituting the internal authority of the Holy Spirit 
for the external authority of the Church, so this doc- 
trine is now displacing the authority of the onesided 
intellectualism which claims to be the full representa- 
tive of reason, and which requires the fullest historical 
assent to Scripture as the basis of religious faith. In 
fact, the evidence of Christian experience as witnessed 
by the Holy Spirit, which evidence is justly claimed 
as being the most convincing for Christian faith, is 
often pressed so far that it is treated as perfectly ade- 
quate without regard to the historical value of the 
Scriptures. In this respect the teachings of Luther, 
cited above, deserve careful consideration, alike in 
content and in spirit, for it certainly makes a differ- 


THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 109 


ence whether the life and teachings of Jesus Christ 
were historical reality, or a glowing ideal which never 
had visible form. ; 

There are other vital truths which have been ereatly 
emphasized in recent writings on the subject. They 
lay stress on the absolute necessity of the assistance 
of the Holy Spirit in all effective Christian work, 
they affirm an equal necessity of the guidance of the 
Holy Spirit in right Christian living, and of his pres- 
ence in the human heart for growth into Christlike 
character. If the work of John Goodwin could pass 
through the alembic of fine literary expression, fur- 
nished by one who had an adequate spiritual life, the 
result would bea choice gift to the churches of 
Christ. 

Speculative thought as well as practical has been 
busy with the subject of the being of God, and new 
statements of the doctrine of the Trinity have been 
presented for Christian thought. While the bulk of 
thinking has been grounded in the historical develop- 
ment of church doctrine, there has been a revival of 
ancient theories long since rejected by the Christian 
Church, or a restatement of theories which have had 
little influence in Christian thought. Among the 
most prominent of these are Schleiermacher's, 
Hegel’s, and one that apparently has some affinities 
with Hegel's. 

The position of Schleiermacher is somewhat diff- 
cult to state with justice to himself.. It is perhaps 


[10 THE SUPREME LEADER 


best drawn from his discussion of the relative merits 
of Sabellianism and Athanasianism,"! in which he ap- 
parently approved the former, as he conceived it, and 
most unqualifiedly antagonized the latter. His theol- 
ogy was the explication of the contents of Christian 
faith or of the meaning of Christian experience.» He 
held that Christian experience, the consciousness of 
dependence upon the God of redemption, gave no 
material for the doctrine of the Trinity. Conse- 
quently his Christliche Glaube, ed. 2, devoted 
simply the last three sections to this subject, and in 
a form which has no necessary connection with the 
rest of the work, but is practically a.mere supple- 
ment. The view of Schleiermacher seems to be that 
God is not personal in any real sense, nor transcend- 
ent, and that he is simple unity without distinctions 
within himself. The apparent distinctions are the 
diverse modes in which the immanent God is received 
by the world. Thus for him there is no doctrine of 
the Holy Spirit as a distinction or hypostasis within 
the Deity. 

It is a singular fact that while Schleiermacher’s 
doctrine of the nature of the Deity was rejected by 
the more important part of his school,” it had great 
influence on the thought of Albrecht Ritschl and it 
has modified the thinking of many of the Ritschlian 
school. As with Schleiermacher, the relation to 
Christian life is made the test of all Christian doc- 
trine. The doctrine of the immanent Trinity is laid 


- 


DEE NINETEENTH. CENTURY Lia 


aside and various substitutes are given in its place. 
For Ritschl, God’s Spirit is his self-knowledge.” 
Among those who are known as Ritschlians are some 
who recede from his position toward that of the Church 
universal.# It seems as though in the future this school 
must return to the acceptance of the doctrine of the. 
immanent Trinity. If the fact that God is Father is 
a “value judgment” (Werthurtheil) of the highest 
importance, the real deity of Jesus Christ and his 
perfect humanity is a no less important ‘“ value judg- 
ment’ for the sinner, and equally indispensable to 
the Christian is the ‘‘value judgment” that God as 
Holy Spirit is personally operative within his heart 
to complete his redemption. To this conviction 
must the cycle of thought return, because the attempt 
otherwise to find in God an objective basis for Chris- 
tian experience can but fail. 

Hegel’s conception ® is that of an Absolute God 
developing himself as a triplicity in history. First 
the Absolute in himself is the Father, then he ob- 
jectifies himself by a self-diremption in the Son and 
reunites himself in and by the Holy Spirit. With the 
objectification of the Father in the Son goes the de- 
velopment of a manifold finite universe composed of 
the physical universe and man. By reason of his 
double relation to God and the physical world, man 
isin anevil state. The Holy Spirit not only reunites Son~ 
and Father, but also develops the Church and secures 
the reconciliation of man with God, and thus forms 


i.T2Z THE SUPREME LEADER 


the kingdom of God. While the Son is not identical 
with the finite universe, nor is the Holy Spirit, still 
the very being of the Trinity seems somehow involved 
in the world’s development. At all events, it is not 
clear that itis possible for the Deity to be a Trinity 
except by means of the world-development, although 
it is intended to present the Trinity as a timeless, 
permanent thought-process. 

Not a few theologians have been influenced by 
this mode of conceiving the Trinity, but even thus 
influenced they have tried to present a conception of 
the Trinity which is a perfect trinity apart from the 
development of a created universe. Thus they have 
held substantially the Church doctrine of the Holy 
Spirit. 

Another speculative interpretation of the Trinity 
has appatently some likeness to that of Hegel, but 
it is in reality very different. Like Schleiermachet’s, it 
is not wholly new, though the form in which it is pre- 
sented is a modified one. There were intimations of 
it in the teachings of Augustine. It had quite a 
development at the hand of Richard of St. Victor. 
It has been more recently expounded by Liebner and 
Sartorius’? among others. The conception is that 
in order to be absolutely free from all beings outside 
of himself, and in order to be a person and the God 
of love, as he is represented in Scripture, God must 
be a Trinity. If he needed the created world in 
order that he might exercise his love, he is dependent 


THE NINETEENTIL CENTURY 8 


upon that which is outside himself and is not the 
absolute creator of the world, nor essentially inde- 
pendent of it.. Since: Scripture presents ‘him as 
essentially love, he must eternally be love, and there- 
fore he must have the object of love within himself. 
This necessity is met by a conception of the Deity | 
as having personal relations within himself. The 
Father finds an object of his love in the Son, and the 
two have a joint object of love in the Holy Spirit 
who reciprocates to each and both their joint 
love. If it be said that love is complete between 
two, the reply comes that in respect to intensity or 
degree love between two is perfect, but so far as qual- 
ity is concerned there is an egoistic element in love 
between two, and it does not become altruistic until 
the two find a third as object of their joint love. It is 
then perfect in quality and degree. This is abun- 
dantly verified in human life. 

This speculation is more satisfying to the devout 
heart than are the speculations of Schleiermacher and 
of Hegel and it is an attractive representation of the 
Trinity. It is conceivable that Love and Trinity are 
necessary forms for the existence of an absolute per- 
son, This conception pushes the mystery a little 
farther back, but it does not answer the question why 
these are the immanent relations of the Trinity. The 
answer is attempted when a thinker attributes the 
mode of the existence of Deity to the will of the as yet 
indeterminate Deity, who wills that he shall be life 

2 


IgA THE SUPREME LEADER 


and love? This conclusion may seem to be a necessity 
of thought as the question is pushed back farther and 
farther. Probably it cannot be successfully denied. 
Itmay be true; but, after all, in attaining it the finite 
mind has passed the region of known reality and 
gone so far that language itself ceases to have a 
determinate meaning. 

Within the past thirty years there have been two 
interesting attempts to secure an official formulation 
of a partial, or complete statement, of the doctrine 
of the Holy Spirit. One was the agreement of the 
Bonn Conference of August, 1875, upon a statement 
to be submitted to the Eastern and the Anglican 
churches. The statement runs as follows: 

“We accept the teaching of St. John Damascene 
on the Holy Ghost, as it is expressed in the follow- 
ing paragraphs, in the sense of the teaching of the 
ancient undivided Church: | 

“1, The Holy Ghost issues out of the Father and 
the Beginning (apy7), the Cause (air/a), the Source 
(any) of the Godhead. 

“2. The Holy Ghost does not issue out of the Son 
(éx Tov viov), because there is in the Godhead but 
one Beginning (apy), one Cause (aitia), through 
which all that is in the Godhead is produced. 

“3. The Holy Ghost issues out of the Father 
through the Son. 

“4. The Holy Ghost is the Image of the Son who 
is the Image of the Father, issuing out of the Father 
and resting in the Son as his revealing power. 


THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 11s 


“5. The Holy Ghost is the personal production 
out of the Father, belonging to the Son, but not out 
of the Son, because he is the Spirit of the mouth of 

God declaratory of the Word. 

“6, The Holy Ghost forms the link between the 
Father and the Son and is linked to the Father by. 
the: Som,” 

This declaration is more in detail than any Scrip- 
tural data will warrant. 

The Bible gives no basis for the denial that these 
statements may be true of the transcendent relations 
in the Deity; but it is to be doubted if with the evi- 
dence at hand any person has a right to make all 
these affirmations, especially the last three. If a 
body of men choose to affirm the truth of these state- 
ments for themselves, they have the most perfect 
freedom to do so; but they have not the slightest 
tight to require any other person to join with them 
in affirming that these statements are the correct rep- 
resentation of any reality. It may be that they are 
true, and cannot but be true; if so, it is beyond the 
power of man to know it; and in our present mode 
of existence it seems impossible even to understand 
what these statements mean. One is inclined to ask 
if they do not look toward Tritheism. 

Another interesting attempt is found in the pro- 
posals of the Presbyterian Church of the United 
States of America, Northern Assembly, for the revi- 
sion of the Westminster Confession.- An entire new 


L16 THE SUPREME LEADER 


chapter was formed on the Holy Spirit and was pre- 
sented to the General Assembly, at Detroit, in 1891. 
It was recommitted for revision, revised, and pre- 
sented again in 1892, at Portland, Oregon. Both 
the original chapter presented in 1891 and that in 
1892 are given below. The form of 1891 is in com- 
mon type, brackets indicate the words omitted in 
1892, and CAPITALS indicate words added in 1302)" 
The chapter is chapter IX, and is entitled ‘‘ Of the 
Work of the Holy Spirit: ”’ : 


“J, The Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trin- 
ity, being very and eternal God, the same in .sub- 
stance with the Father and the Son, and equal in 
power and glory, is, together with the Father and the 
Son, to be believed in, loved, obeyed and worshiped 
throughout all ages. 

“TI, The Holy Spirit, who of old revealed to man 
in various ways the mind and will of God, hath fully 
and authoritatively made known this mind and will 
in all things pertaining to life and salvation in the 
sacred Scriptures. Scriptures, being so inspired, are 
the infallible Word of God, the supreme rule of faith 
and duty. 

“TIT. The Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, 
is everywhere present among men, confirming the 
teachings of nature and the law of God written on the 
heart, restraining from evil [and] inciting to good, 
and [is the source of all the wisdom, virtue and rev- 
erence for God found in men, and of all the peace 
and good order in society ; thus] preparing the way 
for the Gospel [wherever it is preached], ~He 
[everywhere] LIKEWISE accompanies the Gospel 


THE NINETEENTH CENTURY La 


with his persuasive energy and urges its message 
upon the REASON AND CONSCIENCE OF unregenerate 
MEN, [enlightening their minds concerning divine 
things, quickening their consciences, and drawing 
them by his grace, | so that they who reject [the] ITS 
merciful offer [of the Gospel] are not only without 
excuse, but also guilty of resisting the Holy Spirit. 

“TV. The Holy Spirit is the only efficient agent in 
applying and communicating redemption. He effec- 
tually calls sinners to new life in Christ Jesus, regen- 
erating them by his almighty grace [freeing them 
from the bondage of sin and death] and persuading 
and enabling them to embrace Jesus Christ by faith. 
He dwells in all believers as their Comforter and 
Sanctifier, and as the Spirit of adoption, and of sup- 
plication [leading them into all the truth, making the 
means Of grace efficacious \.in their edification, 
strengthening them for all duty, sustaining them in 
all affliction, and] performing all THOSE [other | 
gracious offices by which they are sanctified AND 
sealed UNTO THE DAY OF REDEMPTION, |,and made 
meet for the inheritance of the saints in light]. 

«“V. By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit all be- 
lievers are vitally united to Christ, who is the head, 
and are thus united to one another in the Church, 
which is his body. He calls and anoints ministers 
for their holy office, [.He also calls and] qualifies 
all other officers in the church for their special work, 
and imparts various gifts and graces to its members. 
He gives efficacy to the Word and to the ordinances 
of the Gospel [keeps the Church from apostasy, re- 
vives it in times of declension, and enables it to bear 
effectual testimony to the truth]. By Him the 
Church [has been and] will be preserved, increased 


118 THE, SUPREME’ LEADER 


and purified, until it shall cover the earth, and at last 
- BE MADE [be presented to Christ] a glorious Church, 
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” 


It is no more than just to say that a large share of 
the Reformation thought is in this proposed chapter, 
but if a person is so disposed he can deny that the 
doctrines of the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit 
to Scripture, and that of the joint witness of the 
Spirit to the believer’s sonship are taught in the 
chapter. 


Se) vei 
THE WORK AND THE. PERSON OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


Scripture teaches that God manifests himself in 
the world as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This 
Trinity of manifestation or historical Trinity is 
called also the Economical Trinity. God the Holy 
Spirit is God immanent in the created world, and the 
agent of the divine Providence over the world. 

The more important features of the work of the 
Holy Spirit may properly be treated under the fol- 
lowing heads: 

I. The Holy Spirit as God immanent in the 
world. 

II. The Holy Spirit as the agent of divine Provi- 
dence in rendering effectual the priestly work of 
Jesus Christ. 

III]. The Holy Spirit as agent carrying on the 
prophetic work of Jesus Christ. 

IV. The Holy Spirit as agent in the execution of 
the kingly work of Jesus Christ. 

V. The Holy Spirit in the Deity, or the Holy 
Spirit as a Person. 


CHAPEL 
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS GOD IMMANENT IN THE WORLD 


The Holy Spirit as the Deity immanent in all 
creation manifests his presence .by the operations 
which we call the laws of nature. He is the princi- 
ple of order and life, the organizing power in created 
_ nature. All the forces of nature, in gradation from 
the most fundamental forms—from gravitation, if it 
be the most fundamental—up every step of the 
ascent even to the crowning force known to us in the 
world, personality, are but evidences of the pres- 
ence and operation of the Spirit of God. All 
genuine development in the physical world and in 
human history, all evolution is due to him. Me- 
chanical forces, chemical action, organic life in plant 
and animal, energy connected with nervous action, 
intelligence and moral conduct are but tokens of the 
immanence of God, of which the Spirit of God is the 
agent. He imparts all power to individual exist- 
ence, determining its initiative according to its 
normal type; in short, to him are due what we call 
the natural properties and forces of created being. 

The Spirit constitutes the mind, so that in normal 
action, under the idea of reality, it comes to rest 


THE HOLY SPIRIT AS GOD IMMANENT Pd 


when truth is attained, and the mind has a sense of 
harmony which is due to having come into accord 
with the Spirit of truth. 

In the normal action of the feelings there is also a 
sense of harmony with the sources of the inner life. 
This sense of harmony is pleasure, happiness, joy, 
or blessedness according to the character of the 
experience. 

In the normal action of the will there is a sense of 
harmony -with the divine will and a fruitage of joy. 

The immanent Spirit of God is the preservative 
power in finite and created nature. Man in his en- 


tirety as a physical and spiritual being gives evidence 


of some power working for the maintenance of phys- 
ical well-being, mental sanity and moral integrity. 

In disease the wise physician takes into account 
the healing energy of nature, and places his chief de- 
pendence upon it. His own function is to remove all 
obstacles in the way of the v7s medicatrix. Unless 
this power is present his skill is in vain. It is the 
preservative energy of the Spirit of God, immanent 
in man’s physical nature. 

In all intellectual activities a certain normal stand- 
ard 1s recognized, for abnormal or perverted activities 
leave a man open to error in perception, memory or 
judgment. When mental action is normal, we believe 
a man must attain truth or knowledge of fact, either 
by gaining possession of actual knowledge, or by his 
recognition of the limitations of knowledge. With 


[22 THE SUPREME LEADER 


this conviction we investigate and formulate the 
proper modes of intellectual activity, we learn the 
ways in which error enters into mental results, and 
we call them sources of error. We appeal to the 
human faculties, confident that their normal action 
will give uniform results. The Spirit so organizes 
the mind of man as to give him power to recognize 
order and intelligence embodied in the physical world, 
which order and intelligence are due to the opera- 
tions of the Spirit. It is for this reason that we ap- 
peal to the normal activities of judgment and con- 
sciousness, for we believe that when all abnormal 
action is avoided we may expect accord in the mental 
results attained by all persons. 

Moreover, there is what we term moral force, en- 
ergy of the will which is the core of human personal- 
ity. This is spiritual energy and is maintained by 
the same power which maintains physical energy. 
Its normal manifestations in human life are in accord 
with normal moral judgments. 

The origin of all these manifestations of energy is 
attributed by Scripture to the Spirit of God as the 
principle of life, of intelligence and moral action in 
man, and as the agent securing their preservation. 
Since he is the preserving agent, he acts as a con- 
stantly impelling force toward the realization of what 
is normal or sane, whether in the physical, intellect- 
ual, or moral forms of human development. Thus 
energy from the Spirit is present in all men, and is 


THE HOLY~ SPIRIT AS GOD IMMANENT 123 


that which gives them capacity of life and action, as 
free and responsible beings. Therefore, if one asks, 
What are the ordinary operations of the Spirit? we 
reply, “The* ordinary laws of nature. Ifthe further 
question be asked, What are the ordinary operations 
of the Holy Spirit in man? the answer is, The laws of 
the mind as learned by the study of psychology. 
Thus the student of psychology is studying the ordi- 
nary operations of the Holy Spirit inthe human soul. 
He who secures the normal action of his mind is 
promoting the ordinary operation of the Spirit. He 
who secures the normal development of his mental 
powers to the highest degree practicable, is thereby 
giving these ordinary operations of the Spirit their 
highest efficiency. 

One feature of the normal mental activity of man 
is that it is free from local or individual influences. 
The mental powers have value in proportion as they 
give results in accord with reality. The sense of this 
accord is the certainty which is an element of real 
knowledge, and certainty is attained by the test of 
experience; in fact, it is by experience that we test 
all action of our faculties. The full evidence of ex- 
perience is not given by any one person’s mental 
action and experience, but it is the result of the men- 
tal operations and experiences of men in general, for 
in all ordinary mental operations and experience that 
which is normal is found by eliminating whatever is 
peculiar to any individual. Thus we may rightly say 


L244 THE SUPREME LEADER 


that knowledge comes only from the normal action 
of our faculties, and this action is proved to be nor- 
mal when it answers to our experience and to the 
experience of others in similar circumstances, aviats 
normal action of the human faculties is due to the 
ordinary operation of the Spirit; all that is abnormal 
is due to individual idiosyncrasy. 

The impulse to gain knowledge of reality is also 
due to action of the Holy Spirit. In fact, this is 
at the basis of all kinds of his activities within us. 
Whether that impulse shall crystallize into a purpose, 
or into characteristic action, depends upon the per- 
son. From this point of view it will be seen that all 
real advance in knowledge is simply the working out 
of this impulse of the Holy Spirit, in conformity with 
the principles of normal action which he has placed 
in the human soul. In other language, all normal 
development in the history of an individual is in con- 
formity to the direction of the Spirit of God, because 
it is in conformity to the constitution of human nature, 
and that constitution is due to the Spirit 

Allusion was made above to recuperative energy 
as evidence of the preservative power operating in 
human nature. This energy is due to the Spirit of 
God, for he is the Spirit of life. The question most 
naturally arises, If the Spirit of life is the source of 
the preservative power and of the recuperative energy 
in human nature, how is it that there is anything ab- 
normal in human life? The teaching of Scripture is 


THE: HOGY, SPERIT. AS. GOD -IMMANENT 125 


clear that the Spirit is the source of order, organt- 
zation, life, intelligence, and of moral capacity in the 
physical. world and in man. Let one observe the 
facts of human life and experience. He cannot truth- 
fully affirm that anything in human life is perfectly 
normal. No man’s physical being is in a normal. 
condition. No individual's mental faculties are re- 
garded as being thoroughly trustworthy, for moral or 
intellectual idiocyncrasies are found in those who are 
regarded as most sane. In physical needs we call in 
the physician in order to secure full scope for the ves 
medicatrix ; yet we recognize that there are diseases 
which seem to poison the very fountain of physical 
life, and in no instance is the physical life equal to 
the securing of immortality. We attempt to correct 
defective or abnormal action of the intellect by edu- 
cation and systematic training, yet we are compelled 
to acknowledge the impossibility of correcting all 
which is abnormal or defective. These defects may 
be due to. connate limitations of mental power, to the 
perversions of self-interest, or to the wilful misuse of 
the faculties. 

We might believe that, if the Spirit of God had 
always been properly seconded by human co-opera- 
tion, that which is abnormal would never have gained 
any power in human life. It may be hoped that as 
men strive to conform more closely to their own nor- 
mal development, the development of the entire race 
will approach parc passu to the type which is the 
divine ideal for mankind. 


126 '. THE ‘SUPREME LEADER 


The problem presented by an abnormal personal- 
ity is very different from that of abnormal physical 
or intellectual development. Physical pain: and suf- 
fering can be largely diminished by the efforts of 
men, and the average duration of life lengthened. 

It is certain that a large amount of abnormal men- 
tal action is due to the abnormal attitude and activi- 
ties of the human will, and this is due to the fact that 
the very center of the human personality is wrong. 
When the whole person, from center outward, is ab- 
normal, what possibility is there of rectification by 
any forces resident in the. person? For this evil, the 
nature of man contains no ws medzcatrix. All 
attempts at correcting the evil really point toward a 
perfect standard of conduct which can no more be 
attained than physical immortality. 

This evil state must continue, unless something be 
added to the power resident in human nature. Some- 
thing is needed which shall secure the realization of 
the normal destiny of man, something which can se- 
cure the ideal toward which man’s constitution 
points, something which shall give the needed cor- 
rection of the center of the personality, and by this 
correction bring to pass normal spiritual action, and 
finally bring the personality into a normal condition. 

Such corrective power, adapted to secure the ideal 
toward which man’s constitution points, is furnished . 
by the Holy Spirit, the author of man’s constitution. 
Thus the remedial influence is not destructive of any 


_ THE HOLY SPIRIT AS GOD IMMANENT 127, 


normal element of human nature, but is in perfect 
harmony with it, for it is derived from the original 
source of human nature. Manas constituted by God 
is a free being. He must consent to the corrective 
energy of the Holy Spirit. He must accept the help 
which the Holy Spirit offers in order to secure a. 
change of the center of his personality from self to 
God, for this power will not be forced upon him. In 

the physical world no consent is needed. 7 


CHA PEERS. 


This is the general and universal providence of 
God. There is no such thing as separating the prov- 
idence of God into two divisions, common providence 
and redemptive providence. Providence over sinless 
beings is nowhere a part of the Biblical thought con- 
cerning the relation of God to human history. 

Neither is it Biblical to consider man’s history 
apart from the redemptive plan or work of God. All 
of God’s providence has a redemptive thought. No 
human being is outside the redemptive providence 
and no part of human history has been outside that 
providence. But the work of divine providence in 
rendering effective the priestly work of Jesus Christ 
has methods not included in the ordinary providence 
of the immanent Spirit of God. 

As the phenomena of the physical world and of 
the ordinary operations of the human mind reveal 
the functions of the Spirit of God immanent in the 
universe, so the phenomena of the redemption of 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN RENDERING 
EFFECTIVE THE PRIESTLY WORK OF 
JESUS CHRIST 


er 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 129 


men reveal the redemptive functions of the Holy 
Spirit. These phenomena are largely within the 
human soul, authenticated by the testimony of mil- 
lions of redeemed persons, and appearing also in. 
some measure in the inner life of those who have re- 
fused to yield to the redemptive influences of the 
Spirit: 

I. General statement of this work of the Holy 
Spirit. 

For the removal of the human personality to its 
normal center a new power is needed and it is given 
under the law of grace. The principle of self-sacri- 
fice must be accepted §0 as to put God in the place 
of self, making him the motive of conduct and the 
goal of activity, by choosing him as the Alpha and 
Omega of life. The power to do this is imparted by 
the Holy Spirit, and this power comes because of 
the crowning exhibition of divine love in the vicari- 
ous sufferings of Jesus Christ. Power comes also by 
reason of the disciples of Christ entering into the 
fellowship of the sufferings of Christ and filling up 
that which is lacking in those sufferings. This new 
power serves to convince of the reality of the spirit- 
ual life and of its true value, to reveal the character 
of God and his estimate of sin, 7. e., the abnormal 
centering of human life in one’s self. The sufferings 
of Jesus and his disciples furnish the Holy Spirit 
with the visible evidence which the Holy Spirit needs, 


in order to bring self-centered persons to recognize 
ige) 


130 THE SUPREME LEADER 


the truth; and thereby gain the power to carry out 
the regenerative fiat, even as the Spirit of God made 
possible the execution of the creative fiat. As he 
then operated in developing the laws of nature, so 
now he develops the laws of grace. Along the ave- 
nues to the human heart which exist by virtue of the 
original creation, and by virtue of the constant pres- 
ervation of the natural powers of the soul, we must 
believe that the new principle of grace gains access 
to the soul and begins its operations inthe soul. 

The Spirit of God is called Holy apparently 
because he has for his crowning office, in addition to 
his functions as immanent Deity, the reorganization 
of the nature of sinful man, fitting him to come into 
redemptive fellowship with Jesus Christ, the Son, and 
maintaining in man that susceptibility to the elevat- 
ing influence of this fellowship which shall secure his 
full conformity to the image of Christ. The Holy 
Spirit is also the source of all those inner additions 
of power which render man efficient in his religious 
life and work.. This office he filled at the time of the 
establishment of Christianity, in part, by the be- 
stowal of extraordinary gifts upon the few, and in 
part, by giving their teachings such access to the 
minds of men-as to render these gifts to the few 
beneficial to the many. | 

Outside of Israel this office in pre-Christian times 
has been to preserve men from. utter corruption and 
to prepare the way for Christianity. When Chris- 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT bg | 


tianity enters into the life of any nation the Spirit 
gives efficiency to the presentation of the gospel, 
~The work of the recovery of men begins at the 
center of the personality. This is proved from the 
various modes of designating it found in the New 
Testament. The change is called becoming as 
little children (Matt. 18:3), a new creation (Gal. 
6:15; 2 Cor. 5:17), transformation by the renew- 
ing of the mind (Rom. 12:2), life as contrasted 
with death (Rom. 6: 11), shining into the hearts of 
men like the creative light shining in darkness 
(2 Cor. 4:6), creation in Jesus Christ for good 
works (Eph. 2:10), resurrection from the dead 
Re aioe 134 ck Ephi @ee1 5), reconciliation from 
alienation and _ hostility (Col. 1: 21), putting on the 
neve man (Eph. 45247 Col.3: 10), a renewal in 
knowledge (Col. 3: 10), renewal in the spirit of the 
mind (Eph. 4:23), renewing by the Holy Spirit 
(Titus 3:5), a new birth (John3 23), and being 
born of the Spirit (John 3: 5). With all these phrases 
compare (Ezek. 36:26) the new heart and the new 
spirit promised in the Messianic times. 

Figurative language means more than its expres- 
sions, rather than less, for, aside from hyperbole, it 
is used because of the incapacity of literal expres- 
sions to express the reality. Here the reality meant 
is nothing less than a complete revolution in ‘the 
personality of aman. The number and variety of 
the figures do not merely express the fact, but em- 


132 THE SUPREME LEADER 


‘phasize it most strongly. The Holy Spirit is the 
agent who accomplishes this revolution. 

Furthermore, it is through his sanctifying agency 
that the Holy Spirit renders operative the priestly 
work of Jesus Christ. This is analogous to the pre- 
servative and recuperative operations of the imma- 
nent Spirit as stated above. The abnormal life has 
so affected the human soul, in its relations with the 
physical world and in its habitual tendencies and 
susceptibilities, that the restoration of the soul to its 
normal center simply gives the point of de- 
parture in development, while the ordinary ongoings 
from the old center have not ceased. This is illus- 
trated by the muscular action of an astigmatic eye 
after glasses have come to its aid. The muscles do 
not at first accept the new auxiliary. The habit of 
accepting aid has to be formed. In like manner 
when the person is to be changed from the abnormal 
to the normal state, it is not enough simply to 
change the center of the personality, but his ac- 
quired habits: which had their center in the old self 
must be changed. This revolution of the habits is - 
sanctification. Redemption is not complete until 
the revolution is accomplished. Redemption is 
therefore a process whose culmination is full citizen- 
ship in a kingdom of redeemed men. 

The redemptive activity of the Spirit for the pur- 
pose of accomplishing the priestly work of Jesus 
Christ leads to a wide outlook. As the Spirit was 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 133 


the agent in the organization of the physical world, 
and in its preservation and development, so he is the 
agent in the corresponding processes in the kingdom 
of redemption. 

This kingdom is established by the development 
of the life of the kingdom in individuals. The 
idea of the kingdom implies three things, a world of 
sin, an ideal of perfection and the realization of this 
ideal by means of redemption.”? The ideal is that 
of a state of society where all beings have characters 
conformed to that of the Ruler, and know him, and 
are in intimate fellowship with him; they know his 
will, and cordially obey it in all departments of 
human activity. The realization is the kingdom of 
God. The ruler of this kingdom is Jesus Christ. It 
is entered by the new birth, therefore by the assist- 
ance of the Holy Spirit. The life of the kingdom, 
so far as it is. realized on earth, is progressive and 
subject to the organizing agency ofthe Spirt.aa he 
law of the kingdom is holy love, due to the opera- 
tion of the Spirit. The instrumentalities through 
which the Holy Spirit develops the life of the king- 
dom are all institutions of human life, and: the 
especial instrumentality in which his transforming 
and redeeming agency is operative is the Church of 
Christ. 

It should not be forgotten that the Holy Spirit has 
always had the function of qualifying the agents who 
labor for the foundation of the kingdom of redemp- 


134 THE SUPREME LEADER 


tion, and in addition he has promoted those processes 
of the human heart which prepare for its regenera- 
tion. Throughout the Old Testament history he was 
the author of all ordinary and extraordinary forms of 
life and activity, and the goal of the activity is plainly 
the production of holy character in men. He was 
the agent in the actual establishment of the kingdom, 
causing the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, qualifying 
him in unlimited measure for his work, giving him 
power over death, and he was present in his resur- 
rection. He qualified the apostles for their share in 
the work of establishing the Church. 

In all this work of the Spirit his operations were 
extraordinary as well as ordinary. The extraordi- 
nary were seen in revelation and inspiration, in mira- 
cles incident to the work of establishing the Church. 
Another part of the extraordinary work is the regen- 
eration of believers, or the initial work of the Spirit 
at the beginning of individual Christian lives, after 
which the believer enters into a process of normal 
development, the principle of which is the divine 
grace; this development is in the spiritual nature 
which has become more open to the ordinary influ- 
ences of the Spirit, to which the unregenerate man is 
more or less insensitive, 

The results of all pwipranan operations in the 
establishment or development of the kingdom are 
made a basis for the ordinary operations of redemp- 
tion. For example, in the production of the record 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 135 


of revelation, extraordinary and ordinary modes of 
operation were blended, while in gathering the rec- 
ords, in the selection of the writings, or the formation 
of the Canon, the ordinary illuminating agency of the 
Spirit was probably sufficient. 

2. General description of the redemptive process. 

This process includes what is called regeneration, 
conversion and sanctification. In it are gained new 
spiritual attitudes, new intellectual tendencies and 
new habits of feeling. 

In respect to conversion the Spirit secures some 
conception of the true character of God, of the 
proper relation between God and the individual, and 
also of the possibility of the entrance into this rela- 
tion. He secures imperative action in the conscience 
so that itcommands an entrance into the right rela- 
tion with God, and persuades the will to the choice 
of entering this relation, which choice is called con- 
version. 

It sometimes comes to pass that in the midst of a 
careless life, with no thought of moral standards, 
with no external occasion to turn the ‘mind to the 
particular subject, there arises in the soul a sense of 
uneasiness respecting some act or course of con- 
duct. This uneasiness increases. It is resisted; the 
mind seeks diversion, often in vain. In spite of all 
efforts the mind is held to the subject. The feeling 
intensifies, the person comes into an agony of soul 
respecting his relations with God. The uneasiness 


136 THE SUPREME LEADER 


passes into a passionate regret for the past life. There 
comes a change of mind, a new point of view re- 
specting life and duty is reached, penitence and con- 
version follow. All this is at variance with the usual 
ongoing of human feeling and conduct, though it is 
in reality a change from the abnormal to the normal 
in life. 

While the experience just sketched correctly de- 
scribes many conversions, it is not common, so far as 
we have testimony, for the sense of uneasiness to be 
aroused without external occasion. More often some 
event, some word, something noticeable, often most 
casual, arrests the attention and somehow directs it to 
the moral character of the life. When once the 
attention is arrested, the subsequent experience is 
like that given above. Conversion may have other 
occasions, as when the heart is smitten by a sudden 
sense of the charm of Christ, and then yields full 
allegiance to him, as the best and dearest friend a 
human being can have; or’when the Christian life is 
recognized as the only manly life to live; or when 
the Christian life is seen to be one’s duty and is 
accepted. ; 

In the large majority of cases of conversion a per- 
son has a sense that there is a factor in the expe- 
rience more and other than his own activity. He 
sees clearly what is his duty, he is urged by con- 
science, he has a desire to choose rightly, but the 
requisite energy of will is lacking. An energy is 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT LF 


required sufficient to shift the very center of person- 
ality—now in self—and place it in God. The per- 
son needs all the energy of his being, and more, in 
order to remove the radii of his thought and activi- 
ties and give them their normal center. Somehow, 
while wishing that he might make the change and at 
the same time feeling conscious of his inability to do 
so, he suddenly finds that he does make it, that he 
has made it. An element has manifested itself which 
is felt not to be due to the person’s own capacity for 
action. There is a change of mind, a perdvoua, re- 
pentance. We cannot explain the experience except 
from Scripture, which teaches that the element exter- 
nal to the soul is the regenerating work of the Holy 
Spirit. From the human side it may not be possi- 
ble to give a more complete analysis of what has 
taken place. It seems presumptuous to say that this 
one is complete. Perhaps regenerating grace is 
merely the gift to the human will of the energy 
requisite to enter into normal relations with God. 

In this new. life, often when there is no conscious 
searching for truth, there come gleams of insight into 
life and into its meaning, quickenings of conscience, 
inner tides of energy for the will, sweetening and 
strengthening graces of every sort. These may seem 
to have an external occasion, or it may be that none 
can be discovered. 

Again, there belong to the life of redemption ex- 
periences which are consciously sought. We go to 


138 THE SUPREME LEADER 


God with rebellious wills, with lawless desires, with 
tumultuous longings, so that we have little or no 
power to discern truth and duty, and scarce any de- 
sire to do it. A peace falls upon us, our unworthy 
desires fall away, our rebellious wills become sub- 
missive, our vision of truth and duty becomes clear, 
and we know that the spiritual atmosphere has 
changed. Indeed, we have been taken up to a mount 
of transfiguration and, for a time, are transformed by 
a presence which we seem to feel. 

The unanimous testimony of the subjects of these 
experiences is that the cause is outside of themselves, 
that it was impossible for them to have gained the 
experience by any means which were within their 
control. The testimony of the Scripture is that the 
Holy Spirit is the cause. 

After a man has made the mighty effort and has 
turned to God as he ought, his development into 
holy character is accomplished by the ordinary 
methods of the operations of the Spirit of God. 
This development necessitates repeated tests in diffh- 
culties to be overcome, in tasks to be performed, in 
courses of self-denial to be followed; all these are 
needed to develop a holy will and character. 

Man’s inner nature is a most cunningly woven 
fabric; the sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feel- 
ings and sentiments of the present are so interwoven 
with all. the past that immediate detachment from 
the past is impossible, save with the loss of one’s 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 139 


reason. Insanity would follow. -Since mental whole- 
ness makes it impossible to detach a person from his 
past self, the same fact renders the real transforma- : 
tion of a person a difficult and slow process. When. 
done in the best manner, it is like transplanting a 
vine, taking the tendrils one by one, unclasping. and 
unwinding them from one set of supports.and wind- 
ing them on others, and then clasping the tendrils as 
closely as possible about the new supports. If the 
plant were sensitive, the process would involve 
measureless pain. Such pain comes to the con- 
verted man in the process of the full attainment of a 
normal condition of his soul. 

The past self of the man is always at war against 
the formation of a new self diverse from the past, 
whether the new be religious or otherwise. The old 
moods, habits of thought, of feeling or of choice are 
as if instinct with life and determination to maintain 
control of a man, even after he has definitively broken 
off from them. There is needed a constant energy 
of will in the maintenance of the choice of the new 
against the old. Sanctification becomes an inner 
battle which is waged by a new self against an old 
one, by the normal self against the abnormal. The 
war is not a new one. The strife between the nor- 
mal and the abnormal self exists before conversion. 
Video meliora probogue, deteriora seguor illus- 
trates the consentient voice of heathenism testifying 
to the existence of this inner schism. ° 


140 THE SUPREME LEADER 


_ The victory is gained in this contest by the forma- 
tion of new habits of mind, which are called the 
fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, forbearance, 
benignity, fidelity, meekness, self-mastery. Some of 
these are distinctly the forthputting of an energetic 
will. Self-mastery is the attitude of a person hold- 
ing his whole being in subjection to his better self. 
Forbearance is likewise a self-restraint under great 
provocation, and with an energy of will which 
smothers into quietness those impulses to which the 
abnormal second nature is fain to give the mastery 
of everything in conduct. Fidelity is not less a mat- 
ter of will. Love toward men, benignity and meek- 
ness all are the attitude of the will and the resul- 
tant frame of mind, in which the will and feelings 
are fused together in disposition and conduct. 
Peace as regards men, the spirit of harmony and the 
disposition to maintain it, involve habitual action of 
thie Wika In’ dact there is “buts one soi theses trans 
which cannot be said to include predominantly an 
act or attitude of the will. This is joy, the feeling 
which results from harmony with God. It is the 
necessary sequel of the normal conduct of a person 
who is in his normal relations. Right conduct is 
the normal operation of the human spirit when fully 
under the influence of the Holy Spirit; joy is the 
Spirit’s testimony to that harmony. 

It may be asked if the fruits of the Spirit are not 
manifested in securing the normal action of the 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT I4!I 


powers of knowledge as well as in the will. It must 

be said that the faculties of perception and thought 

are as normal as the attitude of the human will per- 
mits them to be. Every act in a holy life helps to 

clear away defects of vision. The relation of the 
will to all knowledge was clearly declared by Jesus, 

“If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of 

the teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I 

speak from myself” (John 7: 17). /Ehisas notan ute 

terance merely to fit a special case. The invariably 

penetrating insight of Jesus into the human heart 

has given us here a psychological principle, not a 

special application of a principle. It is the pure in 

heart who are able to see God, and in fact none who 

are not pure in heart have that clear sight which is 

insight. 

It is true that in all ordinary processes of knowl- 
edge and thought the action of will and intelligence 
are closely interwoven, and the Spirit's redemptive 
work in the will cannot but take direct effect upon 
the power of intelligence. It is one of his functions 
to lead into all truth, and it is another to witness to 
our spirits. 

There is also an intellectual development called 
the Christian consciousness which is no less a fruit 
of the Spirit than are those named by Paul. Those 
fruits were individual. This is of value because it is 
not individual. It is the intelligent, consentient 
Christian sentiment of believers. 


1A2 THE SUPREME LEADER 


Still further, when men are transformed, as the 
result of coming into their normal relation with God, 
they become conscious of their true relation with 
_ their fellow men; hence comes the development of a 
new society. This is the kingdom of redemption or 
kingdom of God or the invisible Church. 

3. Analysis of the redemptive functions of the 
Holy Spirit. The experience described above is 
complex, and is not easily analyzed. For our 
present needs the following is sufficiently complete : 

a. The Spirit reveals the Ruler of the kingdom. 
He speaks through the conscience, and on this 
basis he secures the conviction of truths which come 
to us through the agency of other human beings 
and through the Scripture. By means of these 
agencies, the Spirit convinces of the real character of 
God as revealed in Jesus Christ, the ruler of the 
kingdom, of his authority and rights, of the sinful- 
ness of the person who does not accept Christ as 
Lord and Saviour, and of the lost condition in which 
he is and in which he must remain, if he receives no 
help. This knowledge is part of the preparation for 
entering into the right relation with God. The 
place of conscience in the work of the Spirit illus- 
trates the fact that the normal action of the mind 
(pages 120-4 above) lays the foundation for all re- 
demptive operations, and is a powerful auxiliary 
thereto. 

b. The Spirit brings men into the likeness of the 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 143 


Ruler of the kingdom. — This he does by his provi- 
dential work in— 

(1) preparing men for the new birth, 

(2) the accomplishment of the new birth itself, 
and 

(3) the process of sanctification, 

In each of these stages of development are the 
following elements: 

z. Illumination of the mind, 

22. purification of the affections, and 

222. invigoration of the will. 

(1) In the preparation for the new birth, the 
Holy Spirit, in 

z. illumination, convinces men 

(@) of their sins, 

(6) of their need of redemption, 

(c) of their duty to repent and convert, and 

(d@) of the reality of the divine grace and of its 
efficacy. 

This work is “ the impartation of a higher order of 
lites fordtismite eternal The dnan ie taken-back to)’ 
anew beginning, set going under new provisions 
and conditions of life, stamped with a new spiritual 
impression.”” The process is secret. It is not con- 
trolled by man’s will. Its evidence is in its results: 
The “Spirit ploughs the ground of the soul, con- 
vincing of sin, righteousness and judgment. He 
inserts a vivifying seed, so that man is born again by 
the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. 


* 


144 THE SUPREME LEADER 


He pours out the love of God in the heart. He both 
~ gives the child estate and teaches the new-born man 
to understand it, and to cry Abba, Father.” 

zz. Vhe Spirit kindles in the soul the normal feel- 
ings of regret and penitence for the sins of the past, 
and 

zzz. also moves persuasively toward penitence, 
toward the decision to accept. divine grace, and 
gives strength in an incipient resolve to change. 

(2) In the regenerating act the Spirit consum- 
mates the persuasion to accept the offer of grace, 
and assists in doing the same. ‘The influence of the 
Spirit upon the man is such that the action of intel- 
lect, feelings and will cannot be analyzed, but all are 
fused together. 

(3) In sanctification are the following elements: 

z. Illumination respecting truth and duty, or the 
giving of insight into the gospel. This can be 
brought about by securing conscious attention to 
individual truths; also by sudden flashes of intelli- 
gence, the result perhaps of subconscious processes 
in the mind. It seems as though the Holy Spirit 
must have great access to the soul in this way. 

zz. He stimulates love to Christ and loyal feeling 
toward him. He generates the sense of sonship and 
adoption. He gives joy in the Christian life. He 
clorifies Christ in the soul, giving constantly fresh cause 
for faith, and keeping it vigorous in the soul. Thus 
he brings the believer into full union with Christ. 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 145 


zzz. He strengthens the will in action, enabling the 
believer to overcome temptation. He gives energy 
in mastering those things which hinder progress in 
Christlike attainments. In short, the sanctifying 
work of the Holy Spirit is to work a reversal of the 
abnormal tendencies to sin, yet leaving the suscepti-. 
bilities to temptation still in existence. 

c. The establishment of the kingdom is promoted 
also by the formation of a society composed of per- 
sons conscious of their relations with Christ and 
with each other. 

(1) The individual believers are united by the 
Spirit to Jesus Christ. Since he represents Jesus 
Christ, the Spirit becomes the agent of the per- 
sonal presence of Jesus Christ. Through this 
agency the relation comes to be as necessary, as 
close and as tender as it was between Christ and his 
early disciples, while he was on earth. There comes 
to be a oneness with Christ which becomes the 
ground of oneness between believers; in this there 
is no invasion of individuality, but a divine attrac- 
tion which secures harmony in life and activities. 
The Spirit causes Christ to live in us; he gives the 
true spirit of prayer. He teaches concerning Christ, 
so that the believer knows the mind of Christ and 
can enter into full sympathy with him, and afterward 
become a secondary source of blessing to others 
(lonn. 4 37-39; 2021-23); . 

(2) The development of this society~is promoted 

It 


146 THE SUPREME LEADER 


by the equipment of leaders who are more than 
usually open to the ordinary influences of the Spirit. 
He gives them special qualifications by granting, in 
an unusual degree, illumination to the mind; by 
arousing the motions of love and loyalty to Christ ; 
by giving ardor and joy in his. service; by ener- 
gizing the will for action; or it may be that the qual- 
ifications would include all of these ways. 

(3) Another constituent element in the develop- 
ment of this society is the formation of the Christian 
consciousness. This will be discussed more fully at 
a later point. 


CHAPTER: TU 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN CARRYING ON 
THE PROPHETIC WORK OF JESUS “CHRISTE 


The Holy Spirit is the agent who carries on the 
prophetic work of Jegus Christ, representing the 
visible presence of the Redeemer since his ascension 
and glorification. As Christ is Paraclete in heaven, 
so the Holy Spirit is Paraclete on earth. They are 
one, the self reigning from heaven is the celorified 
Christ, the other self teaching and ruling on earth is 
the Holy Spirit. He represents the Christ and 
makes real and effective to the believer what Christ 
the ruler of human history and destiny is, our “wis- 
dom and righteousness and sanctification and re- 
demption.” 

He makes known the mind of Christ, he is the 
interpreter of Scripture, leading the Church into the 
truth. During the centuries since Christ the Spirit 
has constantly been leading believers into an enlarg- 
ing apprehension of the meaning and power of the 
gospel, and though the progress has been slow it 
has been real. 

It is probable that a large share of the redemptive 
operations of the Holy Spirit are immanent, like the 
ordinary action of his preservative force in human 


148 THE SUPREME LEADER 


life. All energy added to the mental powers, to the 
intellect, feelings and will, must be so regarded. 
Some phenomena in the life of the believer are not 
easily explained as immanent operations. The con- 
viction of duty, the witness of the Spirit, the Chris- 
tian consciousness and the statement of its contents, 
the acceptance of a body of literature as Scripture 
with authority, and the application of the teaching of 
Scripture to human life cannot always be explained 
without difficulty as due to his ordinary immanence. 
Illumination ‘is a general term which is a sufficiently 
accurate designation for all these specifications. 

1. In illumination does the Spirit impart knowl- 
edge by personal intercourse? It is not altogether 
easy to believe this. He reveals not himself but 
Christ. If the believer is growing in consciousness 
of his relations with Christ, or in understanding of 
what Christ is, this growth is better evidence of the 
Spirit’s teaching than many of the experiences which 
are thought to be communion with the Spirit. 

He is rather to be recognized by his works in re- 
generation and sanctification. The phenomena of 
life are the proof of life, the phenomena of intelli- 
gence are the proof of the presence of intelligence, 
the phenomena of coming into the truth are “the 
proof of the presence of the Spirit of truth; These 
last are the motions of the Holy Spirit and he alone 
can produce them. Theconfession that Jesus Christ 
is Lord is due to the result of his presence in the 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY. SPIRIT 149 


heart, and the denial of the Lordship of Christ can- 
not come from him. 

It may be that the Spirit convinces a man of his : 
duty simply by heightening the energy of conscience, ~ 
so that it demands that he exercise care to learn 
the exact truth respecting duty, and to yield exact 
obedience to what is recognized as duty. One does 
not feel fully satisfied with this suggested explana- 
tion, in all cases. A more accurate knowledge of 
the operations of the conscience is to be sought. 
Conscience is not discernment, but simply an imper- 
ative, when it calls for the exact knowledge of duty 
or demands the performance of what is conceived as 
duty. Ifthe discernment of duty be attributed to 
the Spirit and called guidance or suggestion, the 
question of the mode in which the suggestion arises 
within the mind still remains unanswered. It is cer- 
tainly possible for the Spirit to stimulate, if not to 
originate, mental activity. The reality of subcon- 
scious mental action is sufficiently well attested to 
give help at this point. This subconscious mental 
action which is constantly going on seems to be 
mostly automatic, of comparatively slight intensity 
and of great variety of character. The selection of 
words in conversation is one illustration of this action. 
This is automatic and largely due to the association. 
of ideas. A more noteworthy instance of subcon- 
scious mental action is the progress which a person 
may make in reasoning upon a subject in the interval 


150 THE SUPREME LEADER 


between periods of conscious attention to the sub- 
ject. It not infrequently occurs that a thinker recurs 
to the subject of his thought and finds his conclusions 
more firmly grounded, or he mav find a conclusion 
formed which had not been formed at the close of 
his last conscious work on that subject. Sometimes 
he finds a previously formed conclusion completely 
abandoned. We can find no explanation which 
seems adequate, except the hypothesis of the sub- 
conscious activity of the mind. 

There are other occurrences of a similar nature, 
one of which we recognize when we say, “I must 
sleep over this.” It is true that a person is often 
refreshed by sleep, so that he does immediately and 
with ease that which was beyond his power before 
his sleep. Often, however, the person will find his 
“mind all made up” as soon as he wakens from 
sleep, although in his last conscious thought on the 
subject he was in doubt or perplexity. Again, the 
mind accepts certain conclusions without taking note 
of their practical bearings. After a time one or 
more of these bearings occur to the mind without 
apparent occasion. The mind seems to be nestling 
into its ideal environment, and, from time to time, to 
become conscious of coming to rest. Ofa similar 
character are the experiences of the sudden flashes 
of memory, when We recall something which had 
eluded our power of recollection, also the sudden 
intuitions of truth on some subject which has been 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT I51 


casually or considerably in mind. So’ far as con- 
sciousness is concerned, there can be no discrimina- 
tion between the immanent operations of the Spirit. 
and his action in stimulating the mind in its subcon- 
scious operations. 

It is the opinion of the writer that the ordinary 
mode in which the Spirit exerts his influence upon 
the soul is in the sphere of the subconscious activi- 
ties. It must always be remembered that this is a 
hypothesis, which, fromthe very nature of the case, is 
incapable of full verification. The freedom of the man 
is not fettered, for he has elective power to accept 
or reject either that which the Spirit presses upon 
his attention or any of the numberless objects which 
are crowding themselves into his consciousness. 

If we accept this theory, the question remains, 
Does a man ever consciously receive intimations of 
God's will in such a way that he may have a right to 
feel that he has received a personal communiéation 
from God? There issome reason to think this to be 
the case. 

The mature Christian who has carefully and 
prayerfully striven to live in the highest department 
of his being, and to hold himself free from all other 
influences, and has sought guidance from God, is con- 
vinced that- there is an influence from outside him- 
self which has helped him decide difficult questions 
of duty when his own wisdom was utterly at fault. 
Experience enables a man to recognize the source of 


I52 THE SUPREME LEADER 


such help, at least some of the time. Undoubtedly, 
‘experience develops a delicate power of discernment 
in any species of perception. May it be that, with 
the development of the Christian consciousness, there 
is developed the capacity to recognize contact with 
God as a person, while this capacity remains un- 
developed in the sinful or abnormal consciousness 
of the unregenerate man? The delicate intuitions of 
character which some persons have, and their fine 
discernment of motives in conduct when in contact 
with other people, are illustrations of possibilities of 
development which are full of suggestion. 

It is to be noticed that the claims to the reception 
of direct guidance from the Holy Spirit come chiefly 
from persons who have seen few years, whose re- 
ligious character is immature, or whose moral stand- 
ards are not high. Asa rule, the more a person 
claims such guidance the less competent he is to 
know’ whereof he affirms. He too often substitutes 
the special guidance of the Spirit for that ““common 
sense’”’ which is the gift of the Spirit in his ordinary 
ministrations. The genuine experience is so sacred 
that he who knows it does not willingly say much of 
it, until it is well in the past. For these reasons, he 
who has much to say about the special guidance of 
the Holy Spirit, as a present experience, is common- 
ly, and it is probable rightly, thought to be dealing 
with counterfeit and not with genuine experiences. 

2, The question confronts us at once, How is it 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 153 


that the Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we 
are the sons of God, save by personal contact with 
us?? A real assurance that we are the sons of God. 
can come from him alone. It may be said that 
many have sought peace and assurance at the mouth 
of a priest and found it. Was their seeking super- 
ficial? Was there some gospel truth conveyed in the 
utterance of the priest which was the vehicle of the 
divine assurance? One thing is certain, the word of 
man alone has no power to bring peace and assur- 
ance of divine adoption to a troubled conscience. 

What is this witness of the divine Spirit with the 
human? There are various theories UL Jithe weice 
of the Holy Spirit concurrent with the human; (2) 
the voice of the Spirit immanent in the human spirit 
which is incapable of hearing any voice but its own; 
(3) the moral effects upon the believer of the fruits 
of the Spirit, recognized by the believer within him- 
self; and (4) the direct and positive testimony of 
the Holy Spirit, which is given only to a few privi- 
leged believers. 

The language of Rom. 8:16 asserts a concurrent 
testimony and thereby excludes the theories num- 
bered (2) and (3). Christian experience proves that 
while the privilege is not strictly universal and there- 
fore not absolutely essential to the genuineness of 
Christian experience, this assurance of adoption is so 
general that the theory (4) is to be excluded. 

This certain consciousness of -sonship does not 


154 THE SUPREME LEADER 


come from the fact that a man knows that he has 
given himself to God. The honest searcher of his 
own heart knows that an assurance of his sonship 
would have no stable basis in any action performed 
by himself. In fact he feels rather a necessity that 
the Spirit should authenticate his own sincerity to 
himself (Rom. 9:1). 

The recognition of the fruits of the Spirit in one’s 
life may give some sort of assurance. They prove 
that the Holy Spirit has made the heart the seat of 
his sanctifying power. This is a testimony to others 
rather than to the soul in whom the fruits of the Spirit 
are present. Romans 8:16 indicates that the testi- 
mony is not something arising within him but some- 
thing which comes to him. It is not uncommon for 
this assurance to come to a person before the fruits 
of the Spirit could have become visible in his life, in 
fact before they could be said even to have begun to 
grow. It sometimes comes with the sense of forgive- 
ness and at the very beginning of the Christian life. 

The teaching of Paul is that we consciously accept 
the adoption of sons and that the Spirit bears con- 
joint testimony that we have been received into this 
sonship. In experience this sense of sonship seems | 
most closely connected with the sense of forgiveness 
and peace. Can it be identified with them? It might 
seem possible to make the assurance the result of 
peace and regard the experience simply the result of 
the immanent action of the Spirit according to the 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 155 


statement above, on page 121, that in the normal 
action of the will there is a sense of harmony with the 
divine will and a fruitage of joy. Christian experi- 
ence shows that the sense of sonship may exist in the 
midst of a vivid feeling of shame, of unworthiness. 
It may be present when we are rebellious under dis- 
cipline, when we can sce no fruits of the Spirit in our 
lives. It may fluctuate under the influence of sin or 
of physical conditions. It may come at the begin- 
ning of Christian experience, it may be recognized 
only after a long time. The facts in all probability 
negative any theory of the immanent action of the 
Spirit. If this sense of sonship is not due to the 
immanent action of the Spirit, it seems that it should 
be regarded as a personal communication from God 
to the human soul. The possibility of such commu- 
nication has been recognized. 

Human experience shows that thought and emo- 
tion may be consciously received by being in the 
presence of other persons and with no exercise of the 
ordinary modes of imparting either thought or emo- 
tion. These are constantly communicated in ways 
that are well-nigh intangible. It is certain that when 
people are near us we divine their feelings or wishes. 
This is done easily from their telltale looks or man- 
ner, and not infrequently without such outward signs. 
Sometimes the mere presence of another person ex- 
ercises a coercive influence over our wills. It is true 
that none of these experiences are -apart from the 


156 THE SUPREME LEADER 


presence of other persons in physical bodies who are 
able to reveal thought in their usual manner. 

It is not necessary that the persons from whom in- 
fluence comes should intend to convey it, or even be 
conscious of the presence of those whom they actu- 
ally do influence. This appears at revivals, at funer- 
als, and, in fact, wherever deep emotion is manifested. 
Who can remain unmoved as he witnesses the fare- 
well tears of hundreds while a great steamer is start- 
ing on its journey across the ocean? 

These analogies indicate that it would be wholly 
possible for men consciously to receive direct com- 
munications from God, if they were consciously in his 
presence. Is there in the human constitution no 
capacity of perceiving the divine presence? It is 
hardly conceivable that it is left out. May such ca- 
pacity be in conscience? If so, the imperfection of 
conscience, as an organ of faculty of perception, would 
be like that of some organ of sense which should only 
occasionally have known proper use, and should 
never have received proper development. The real- 
ity of personal communion with God is assured by 
the experiences of very saintly men in seasons of 
prayer. At this point it should be remembered that 
there is no better explanation of the “‘ prophetic state” 
of the Old Testament prophets than is afforded by 
the analogy of prayer. It is natural to conclude that 
such experiences in prayer are proper to the soul 
which has attained its normal relation with God in a 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 157 


measurable fulness. It is incredible that God created 
man with no Godward capacity of perception. The 
Scriptural teaching of the witness of the Spirit cers 
tainly implies that God did create man with the cae | 
pacity of receiving personal communications from 
himself, and that such communications are actually 
made. The abnormal state of the human race is due 
{othe “effect: of-sin, and’ itvhas become a second 
nature; this is doubtless the reason why such com- 
munication does not seem natural. 

3. Hlumination by the development of the Chris- 
tian consciousness. 

This must be regarded as the work of the Holy 
Spirit operating in the souls of believers like his ordi- 
nary immanent operations in man as man. The Holy 
Spirit working immanently secures a state of con- 
sciousness normal to the life of a person who has 
passed through the great change of regeneration and. 
conversion. 

Before this change there might have been momen- 
tary gleams of insight into the meaning of life and its 
problems, but there could be no steady light until the 
person should have been permanently adjusted to the 
right point of view. There might have been mo- 
ments of intense gladness following virtuous action, 
but spiritual joy could not be a settled frame of mind 
until a holy life had become habitual. There were 
righteous actions more or less frequent, but there 
must have been an inner conflict before the will could 


158 THE SUPREME LEADER 


be firmly centered in God. In the so-called natural 
man there is a twofold personality; the abnormal 
perverted self, a second self, at war with the real self, 
the normal self. The one lives according to the way- 
ward selfhood of Egoism; the other seeks a normal 
life according to a standard outside of self, but with- 
out sufficient grip of will to hold the man in accord 
with the standard external to himself. 

The act of regeneration comes. We call it crea- 
tive, and, like creative acts, it must elude the logical 
understanding. Whatever it is, it begins a new and 
transformed history of the man in which even his 
ordinary consciousness undergoes change. Under 
the influence of the new principle of grace there come 
into operation laws of grace which work in harmony 
with the laws of nature, and always in the direction 
of securing the complete development of what is 
normal in the inner life. 

The fundamental feature of the sentient life of a 
person is his consciousness. In the philosophical sense 
of the word, consciousness “is the state in which we 
are when any or all of our faculties are in exercise.”’* 
This state is one in which a person knows himself 
throughout all changes of his mental condition, 
whether he be active or receptive. By the very 
nature of the case this knowledge involves some de- 
gree of a knowledge of the self in relation to that 
which is not self. From this point of departure the 
word consciousness comes into’ use with a modified 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT I59 


meaning. The word with its new meaning enters 
into certain technical terms and these terms become 
scientific. In the new use the word may mean “a 
general phase of thought or feeling, as the moral - 
consctousness, the religious conscfousness.”® In this 
use the word designates the constant presence of 
those fundamental elements of knowledge in accord- 
ance with which we form all our judgments in this or 
that department of experience. It is an underlying 
knowledge of the self and of the not-self and of their 
relations, which forms the basis of all our mental 
states and actions. It is a sort of a permanent deposit 
of knowledge, always present with us in our waking 
moments, the outcome of all past experience. It is 
a permanent background of all the transitory states . 
which are consciousness in the strictly philosophical 
sense of the word, and, as a background, it gives 
color to them. : 

For instance, the general consciousness is the out- 
come of ordinary experience and reflection; moral 
consciousness, the outcome of moral experience and 
reflection; religious consciousness, a similar outcome 
of the religious life; and such an outcome of the 
Christian life is Christian consciousness. 

In this use of the word, consciousness means sub- 
stantially that sense of the value and meaning of one’s 
experience which is constantly in his mind. It in- 
cludes the presuppositions called the idols of the 
tribe, den, forum and theater. It is constantly sub- 


tOoOls* THE SUPREME LEADER 


ject to modification by advancing knowledge. The 
Christian consciousness, therefore, means that under- 
lying knowledge of self as a moral being, of God the 
Father and Christ in their relation to self, and of the 
relation which exists between them and self, which is 
the basis of all our religious thought, feeling and 
action. It is the consciousness which belongs to the 
life and experience of the Christian, to the person 
who is in proper relations with the Father through 
Christ. This consciousness is normal to our state as 
redeemed sinners. It is the consciousness which be- 
longs to us as religious beings plus the addition which 
the experience of sin and redemption brings to it. 

Since this consciousness is the product, in part, of 
experience, it is subject to change, to development. 
This is true alike of the general consciousness and of 
the Christian consciousness. Sin limits its proper 
development. The experience of grace together with 
a devout life gives the proper conditions for its de- 
velopment. In this process the Holy Spirit directs 
and organizes just as he has done in the natural world 
ever since he brooded over the primeval chaos. 

The result is a consciousness common to all those 
who are having the redemptive experience. There 
is a general accord in the consciousness of all those 
persons who are in similar stages of the experience 
of redemption. This fact makes it possible to appeal 
to acommon Christian consciousness. This is similar 
to the appeal made by philosophers to the universal 


THE AGENGY “OF UCIHE ,HOLY SPIRIT 161 


reason (not to any individual reason alone), or to’ the 
universal consciousness. Reason and conscience are 
known through consciousness, and an appeal to them 
is accepted as valid by all men so far as they have 
attained the adequate use of reason and conscience. 
Thus can we appeal to the Christian consciousness in- 
religious thinking and have the appeal accepted as 
valid. The Christian consciousness is not a norma 
normans forming a standard for Christian doctrine 
and determining it. It is rather a witness to truth 
already given, it is a record of that truth made in the 
human soul. It is a zorma normata, determined by 
the selfsame Spirit who gave the Scriptures, and who 
determines the consciousness in accord with the prin- 
ciples which he revealed in the Scriptures,. The 
Spirit is the VVorma normans verifying the truths 
which he has revealed in the Scriptures, making that 
truth fresh and real to the consciousness of the indi- 
vidual believer, and thereby developing the individual 
consciousness in conformity with his own mind, which 
is the ultimate standard of appeal, because he is the 
Spirit of truth. é 

Since the “Holy Spirit is universally operative in 
forming the Christian consciousness, this must be 
recognized by Christians as having a universal char- 
acter. The consciousness therefore promotes a feel- 
ing of union between believers. This lays the foun- 
dation for the sense of fellowship among them. 


Since the Holy Spirit is the one agent who has been 
12 


162 THE SUPREME LEADER 


forming the Christian consciousness from the begin- 
ning, there is a historical unity in the development of 
this consciousness. It is for this reason that there 
has been substantial accord in the minds of Christians 
of all ages as to the meaning of the gospel. 

The facts thus far stated justify us in calling Chris- 
tian consciousness the intelligent, consentient Christian 
sentiment. The words intelligent and consentient 
must be regarded as having their full value. They 


belong to the general consciousness when that is con- » 


sidered the basis of knowledge. 

It has been observed that the Christian conscious- 
ness is the product of experience and reflection. So 
far as reflection is a factor in its production, so far it 
must, by the very nature of the case, be an intellectual 
product. If there has been sound thinking, there 
will be real knowledge. The amount of intelligence 
will depend upon the amount of experience and of 
intent thought. ® | 

The word consentient excludes individual vagaries 
in the interpretation of the Christian consciousness. 
The consciousness of an individual must be consentient 
with that of all others of equal experience and reflec- 
tion. It is only on this basis that any individual can 
justly appeal to his own consciousness as a positive 
witness to any. truth. No individual consciousness 
can be recognized as a valid standard of appeal, un- 
less it contains the same elements which are found in 
the consciousness of every other individual of normal 


THE: AGENCY OFTHE HOLY SPIRIT 163 


condition and of equal mental development in the 
direction of the subject in question. The conscious- 
ness of an individual musician is a valid standard of - 
appeal in questions relative to melody and harmony, 
if there are in it those elements which are common 3 
to his peers; but if his consciousness is at variance 
with that of the rest, it cannot be accepted as a stand- 
ard. Thus it is with the Christian consciousness. . 
Here again may be seen the unifying nature of the 
work of the Holy Spirit. , 

This consciousness as a permanent background of 
all the mental states partakes of the nature of a senti- 
ment. ‘ Sentzment has a peculiar place between 
thought and feeling in which it approaches the 
meaning of préuczple. It is more than that feeling 
which is sensation or emotion, by combining more of 
thought and by being more lofty, while it contains 
too much feeling to be merely thought, and it has 
large influence over the will: for example, the sem/z- 
ment of patriotism; the sentzmend of honor; the world 
is ruled by sent¢ement. The thought in a sentiment 
is often that of duty, and is penetrated and exalted 
by feeling.” 7 

The Christian consciousness as thus described is 
developed by the Holy Spirit. It is natural to believe 
that his operations are chiefly immanent, and that the 
process of reflection is stimulated by the Spirit 
through the subconscious activities of the mind. Full 
consideration of the subject as presented thus far 


164 THE SUPREME LEADER. 


seems to justify the conclusion that illumination by 
the Spirit comes largely by means of the formation 
of the Christian consciousness and by means of men- 
tal activity in which the influence of the Spirit on the 
subconscious states is accepted by conscious action 
of the mind. 3 

4. Illustration of illumination through the Christian 
consciousness. 

The history of the formation of the Old Testament 
Canon shows the attainment of a religious conviction 
in harmony with our natural powers, and shows that 
this conviction passed from darkness and uncertainty 
to light and to clear view. 

At the time of Jesus Christ the Jews had accepted 
as Scripture the collection of writings which now con- 
stitutes the Old Testament. As nearly as can be 
judged the same writings had been accepted as canon- 
‘cal or authoritative at least fifty or a hundred years 
before the time of Christ. During this period and 
the half century after the death of Christ, there was 
discussion respecting the right of certain books to re- 
main in the Scripture. The books under discussion 
were Ezekiel, Jonah, Proverbs, Esther, Canticles, and 
Ecclesiastes. In the process of the discussion there 
was a gradual cessation of objection and in 90 A. D. 
(perhaps in 118 also) the synod of Jabne decided 
that all difficulties could be answered and no scruple 
was longer held against the full acceptance of these 
books. 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 165 


It is unfortunate that it is not known when the col- 
lection was first accepted and how it was done. This 
can only be conjectured. We find that somehow 
and by some persons the collection had been made, . 
that it was generally accepted at the date when we 
first have clear knowledge of it, and that this collec- 
tion was held in reverence as being authoritative and 
a standard of appeal in religious teaching. Then 
came a period of re-examination and of hesitancy to 
accept the verdict of a previous generation. The 
grounds of this hesitancy were in reality religious in 
character and were inspired by a due reverence for 
God as the Author of Scripture. The outcome was 
an affirmation that the religious sentiment which had 
ruled in the first gathering of this body of writings 
had not been at fault. So far as can be judged the 
first decision was a popular one-and the later decision, 
_the result of judicial reflection on the part of the 
religious leaders of the Jewish people. 

Considering the result and the fact that it has been 
approved by so many generations of Christian be- 
lievers, we may feel ourselves justified in holding that 
the Holy Spirit guided the Jews in selecting out of 
the body of their literature those parts which were 
suited to the purpose of a Bible. The developed re- 
ligious consciousness of the Jewish community recog- 
nized the value of their writings and selected that 
which was truly adapted by the Holy Spirit for their 
religious needs. We cannot but believe that we are 


166 THE SUPREME LEADER 


justified in concluding that the canon of the Old Tes- 
tament was “not formed accidentally nor arbitrarily, 
but providentially, under the superintendence of God's 
Holy Spirit; the canon, as a whole, having come 
into being exactly as each separate book in it origi- 
nated, with this one distinction, that each book is the 
outcome of knowledge in the mind of an individual 
man, that knowledge having resulted from inspiration 
combined with revelation, while the canon, as a 
whole, is the monument of knowledge in the mind of 
the collective Church, that knowledge having resulted 
from the spiritual preparation of its members, com- 
bined with the presentation of certain books which 
they recognized as having divine authority.”* With 
the qualification of what is said about the origin of 
the separate books of the canon the statement seems 
a very just one. 

This is in reality the doctrine of the Testzmonium 
Spiritus Sancti Lnternum upon which the Reform- 
ers relied for their convictions respecting the divine 
origin and testimony of the Scriptures. According 
to this doctrine the Holy Spirit must prove afresh to 
each generation the authority of Scripture just as he 
has done in the centuries before. 

It might be claimed that this form of stating the 
doctrine gives some generation the right to deny a 
place in the canon to some book. It is to be replied 
that no one generation can represent the universal 
Christian consciousness. One generation is compe- 


TRB OAGENGY OF THB HOLY” SPREE 167 


tent to open the question, and discussion can be 
carried on until it is settled. He who has faith in the 
perpetual ministry of the Holy Spirit neither fears. 
critical research into the meaning, origin, history or. 
authority of the Scriptures, nor is willing to hinder 
such investigation, for he is confident that the Spirit 
will form the Christian consciousness and speak 
through it in the many places where objective testi- 
mony is not afforded from the matter under discus- 
sion.® 

5. The definitive testimony of the Christian con- 
sciousness, how is it given? 

It might seem that a universal council of devout 
Christian believers who were intelligent and thought- 
ful and wholly devoted to the truth would be 
competent to declare this testimony or to acknowl- 
edge that there was no clear utterance. 

At the present time, certainly, it is impossible to 
gather a universal council qualified to express the 
mind of the Church. From the time that seculariza- 
tion of the Christian Church set in under the influence 
of Constantine the Great, werldly motives and 
worldly elements have entered so largely into ecclesi- 
astical proceedings that it would be a fruitless effort 
to seek a formal recognition by a council of any 
elements which have more recently been recognized 
in the Christian consciousness.. The utterances’ of 
any councils which have proved to be of permanent 
value have been the declaration of those things which 


168 | THE SUPREME LEADER 


had established themselves in the common faith; the 
real work of the council was to add the form of ex- 
ternal authority. The most valuable utterances of 
councils have been merely acquiescence in truths 
which had already lodged themselves in human 
experience. 

After all, the method of acquiescence is that by 
which the testimony of the Christian consciousness 
is given. Whenever a body of Christian believers 
recognize afresh for themselves that which has been 
believed by a previous generation, or when they ad- 
vance to’ a new stage of thought or knowledge, the 
result is attained commonly by the assent of acqui- 
escence. No considerable portion of the believers 
in any generation do independent thinking. The 
utmost independence that they really exhibit is in 
selecting leaders whom they follow. Thus it is that 
the testimony of the Christian consciousness is 
brought to light chiefly by the labors of a few men, 
There may be a general acquiescence in a misinter- 
pretation of the Christian consciousness, but it can 
be only temporary, for the Spirit is sure to correct 
errors. Real advance is commonly due to the labors 
of a few men. A single individual may be instru- 
mental in bringing into recognition the meaning of 
the collective experience of Christians, or he may be 
able to lead his fellow Christians into a profounder 
knowledge of the teachings of Scripture. Such is 
the best work of the great teachers of the Christian 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT , 169 


¢ 


churches. The Holy Spirit may authenticate or re- 
pudiate the thought of an individual through the 
consciousness of those believers who are sufficiently. 
mature intelligently to accept these individual utter-. 
ances, or to reject them. Thisiacceptance is a real 
though not formal declaration of the truth. If the 
pope at Rome were to make a declaration which 
should receive the practically unanimous assent of 
the great number of his fellow Christians who are 
competent to pass judgment upon the utterance, 
that declaration would have been accepted by 
general assent or acquiescence, and the authority of 
that declaration would come solely from its authenti- 
cation in the hearts of believers Dythewolb)Sonmit. 
As already indicated, it is in this way that the canons 
of the Old and New Testaments were settled, and it 
is in this way that these canons are verified from 
generation to generation. 

There is no visible authority for proclaiming the suc- 
cessive advances in Christian thought. No branch of 
the Church of Christ has such authority resident in it. 
The Holy Spirit is the ultimate authority for the 
recognition of truth. He uses the Scriptures which 
were formed under his guidance, he limits himself by 
the bounds which he has marked out, and he devel- 
ops truth according to the principles there taught, by 
his authentication and interpretation of those truths 
in the Christian life and to the Christian conscious- 
ness. He is the supreme authority for all Christians. 


170 THE SUPREME LEADER 
Even if the words of the New Testament sometimes 
fail to carry intellectual conviction of the full deity 
of our Redeemer, the history of the Christian centu- 
ries is a sufficient evidence of the mind of the Spirit 
as regards this subject. | 
The historical process by which the Spirit gives 
his testimony is sometimes brief. In proportion, 
however, to thé complexity and importance of the 
subject under consideration the process is protracted. 
The human mind must be brought to look at the 
subject from many sides, there are many minds and 
even classes of minds to which the truth must be 
verified and the truth in question. must be brought 
into relation with an immense number of needs 
before the mind of the Spirit can be fully learned. 
Until such a combination of manifold and protracted 
processes of reflection shall have come to pass, it 
must be held that a question is not absolutely settled. 
When the process has attained a stage where there 
has come to be general acquiescence, and where 
thoughtful acquiescence has remained practically 
unchanged for a long time, then there is a high 
degree of probability that the mind of the Spirit is 
definitively manifested, and but the slightest likeli- 
hood that any important modification will ever take 
place. This it is which leads to the belief that the 
question of the canon of Scripture is practically 
settled, although it will forever remain theoretically 
open. 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY~ SPIRIT Bet 


Scripture gives us a right to expect these expe- 
riences in the lives of believers. The teaching of 2 
Pet. 1:20, 21 is that the Holy Spirit is the only ; 
guide in the understanding of revelation. The 
passage implies also his ability and readiness to 
eiide. That he. will do so-is taught explicitly in, 
John 16:13. Again, divine teaching is pledged to all 
believers. A central point of this teaching is John 
6:45. From this verse and its context we learn (1) 
that all believers are taught of God, (2) that this 
teaching is included in the drawing of the Father. 
From other passages we learn that the Spirit is the 
agent in the teaching. This accords with the fact 
that throughout Scripture the Holy Spirit is the agent 
when God touches or moves men. John 6: 45, al- 
though a free quotation of Isa. 54: 13, is yet to be 
regarded as the explicit statement of the meaning of 
several other Messianic passages. The chief of these 
arewere si = 34/and Joel 2>28;20. “In-the:Sinaitic 
Covenant (x. -1o.: 6) lay “the “pessibility that. all 
members of the race of. Israel shouldbe ‘on an 
equality in their relations with Jehovah. This possi- 
bility had never been realized, yet the promise was 
renewed in not a few passages where the prophets 
describe their Messianic ideals, and it is an essential 
feature of the blessings which belong to the End of 
Days. Jesus appropriates it for the disciples who 
believe upon himself... Peter (1 Pet. 225, 9) reiter- 
ates the elements of the Messianic covenant and . 


172 THE SUPREME LEADER 


applies them to Christian believers. Neither the 
Sinaitic covenant nor the reiteration of it by Peter 
refers to any special illumination, but both passages 
put all of God’s people on a common plane of com- 
munication with him. The Messianic enlargement 
of the covenant and Christ’s appropriation of the 
prophecy develop the idea of direct communications 
from God as one of the common privileges of be- 
lievers. In 1-Cor. 12: 7-11, some charism. of: the 
Spirit is recognized as belonging to all. The passage as 
a whole would lead us to believe that the recognition 
and acceptance of a truth taught by another is really 
a fulfilment of the promise of Jesus. The promise 
does not declare that the Spirit should lead each 
believer by the same route, rather that they should 
all be led to the same goal and by the same Leader. 
All promises are limited, of course, by human recep- 
tivity. 1 Cor. 12:3 shows that the common truths 
which lie at the basis of the Christian life cannot be 
affirmed in a proper manner unless the Holy Spirit 
has wrought the conviction ina person’s heart. Matt. 
16:17 gives an illustration of the fact. The Holy 
Spirit had formed in the mind of Peter the convic- 
tion which he expressed respecting the personality of 
Jesus. Peter might have refused to accept the con- 
clusion as others did refuse. He might have turned 
his mind so persistently toward the earthly imagery 
of the Messianic prophecies that he would have been 
blind to the revelation which God was making to 


THE AGEING YS OF VLHE- HOLY “SPIRIT en ee fe 


him. The fact was that Peter had yielded to the in- 
fluence of the Spirit as manifested through Jesus 
Christ. he Spirit had so influenced Peter’s reflec- 
tions that there had gradually arisen within his mind 
the mastering persuasion that Jesus was indeed the 
pon.o! the living: God.-- Also in 1 John2: 20727, we 
learn that individual believers have the gift from ,the 
Holy Spirit of verifying religious truth, and_ this 
power of verification must be regarded as fulfilling | 
the promise of divine teaching. 

Not only does Scripture lead us to expect such 
guidance of the Holy Spirit but the history of the 
Christian Church confirms the belief. It must be said 
that the fulfilment has been realized only imperfectly, 
owing to the limitation imposed by lack of human 
receptivity. The acquisition or reception of truth is 
not merely mechanical. There must be a “will to 
believe” the truth. There is a certain order in which 
truths need to be learned. Some truths cannot be 
learned until after others have come to be known. 
‘Many truths must go into life upon an extensive scale 
before the body of believers can fully accept them and 
thereby be fitted for the reception of other truths. 
Of this fact the writer of Heb. 6: 1 was well aware. 

It is possible that the early Christians did not have 
so clear a conception of the truths respecting the 
personality of God as the teaching of the New Testa- 
ment implies. In the fourth century, the significance 
of the facts and teachings of the Scriptures was 


174 THE SUPREME. LEADER 


brought quite fully to the consciousness of Christian 
believers and, after much controversy, certain most 
important facts found substantially correct statement. 
The “Nicene doctrine’ is substantially an explicit 
statement of that which had been held, in part im- 
plicitly, in part explicitly, by Christians ever since 
the time of the apostles. The Holy Spirit by means 
- of reflection brought to clear light the real meaning 
of their common beliefs. 

An examination of the processes by which the 
conclusion was reached shows the method in which 
religious truth may come to be recognized, when the 
attention of believers is directed to any specific truth 
under the guidance of the Spirit. A settled result is 
reached by general consent; it is based upon intent 
thought which is concerned with wide and varied 
information and most intimately and organically con- 
nected with the redeemed life. ° 

An examination of the historical facts will also lead 
us to see that there is a normal method of advance 
in Christian knowledge. As already said, the work 
of the Holy Spirit in illumination is that of bringing 
to the full consciousness of believers the significance 
of the teachings of Scripture, and the varied rela- 
tions and importance of the elements of Christian 
truth. The illumination of the Spirit also includes 
the realm of duty, as well as that of knowledge. His 
method as regards duty will illustrate that concerning 
truth. 


THE AGENCY (OF THE HOLY: SPIRIT 175 


The Spirit enlightens the mind regarding duty by 
quickening the conscience and holding the mind to 
earnest and sober thought on the subject. Human 
experience is in favor of the view that when there is 
danger of precipitate action on the part of a person, 
unless he is heedlessly precipitate, he is pretty sure 
to have some sense of the incompleteness of his 
knowledge respecting the right course. There is a 
sense of the lack of that harmony which belongs to 
a person who is in accord with the Spirit of- truth. 
A person ought to look for such harmony, and he 
will commonly secure it by divesting himself of all 
wilfulness, by refraining from all wilful conduct, by 
holding the mind open to enlightenment from any 
. quarter; then he may hope that conscience, Scrip- 
ture and the judgment of the wise and good will 
help secure an answer to prayer for a clear vision of 
duty. The study of this analogy leads one to say 
that the normal method of the Holy Spirit in leading 
men into the truth would be: . 

z. Calling attention to the present inadequacy of 
knowledge. 

zz. Leading to reflection. 

vz. Quickening the intellect to vigorous action. 

ev. Guarding from the acceptance of conclusions 
before a real sense of harmony is attained. 

v. Finally giving this sense of harmony or certi- 
tude (see page 120 f). 

In all these processes there would be. an invigora- 


176 THE SUPREME LEADER 


tion of conscience so that one might feel the neces- 
sity of gathering all available facts, also the necessity 
of candor; and an invigoration of the will which will 
enable the thinker to abide faithfully by these neces- 
sary conditions for the attainment of the truth. So 
far as the believer may need to give expression to the 
results of his reflection, the Holy Spirit may be ex- 
pected to enable him to form a correct judgment re- 
specting the proper or wise mode of giving this ex- 
pression, on conditions similar to those on which he 
arrived at his convictions of truth. 

An examination of the facts reveals such a process 
as that which has been sketched as the normal one 
by which one may be led into the truth by the Spirit 
of truth. This would be anormal method of ad- 
vance in Christian knowledge, and it is often exem- 
plified in individuals. This normal method is rarely 
seen on a large scale. It is true that, owing to the 
limitations of many individuals in mental power, or 
to their subjection to prejudice, or to their indolence, 
or to the dominance of some other unchristian senti- 
ment, they are at best open only to a partial guid- 
ance of the Holy Spirit, and thus are able to attain 
only imperfect or distorted views of truth. 

Truth is many-sided, and not a few persons have a 
natural or acquired incapacity of seeing more than 
one side of a subject. Not a few who are capable of 
seeing two sides are unwilling to do so, Others 
again are unwilling to believe that the truth can be 


THE AGENCY. OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 177 


anything else than the precise form of statement 
which they are holding at that precise time, and they 
refuse to let any advance of knowledge enter into 
their conception of the truth. It comes to pass, 
therefore, that inherited opinions, opinions which are 
due to chance impressions, one-sided views of truth, _ 
distorted views, are each and all a heritage of men. 
In addition to all this, mental indolence is a part of 
“ original sin,” 

From the various causes enumerated it comes to 
pass that a common mode of arriving at the truth is 
as follows: 

7. A rude attack by some one upon an opinion 
cherished by others who have entertained no ques- 
tion as to matter or statement of their belief. 

zz. Identification, by those who hold the beliefs at- 
tacked, of both the matter and form of their belief 
with the ultimate and unchangeable truth. 

zzz. Bitter controversy in which uncharitable sus- 
picions are indulged respecting the sincerity or Chris- 
tian character of those who hold opposed views. 

zv. The establishment of prejudices on both sides, 
and the development of personal animosities which 
prevent a clear vision of the truth. 

v. A gradual subsidence of the controversial and 
personal spirit, and an opening for a pure love of the 
truth to enter so that the normal method of coming 
to the truth is possible. 

The controversial spirit is absolutely fatal to gen- 

¥3 


178 THE SUPREME LEADER 


uine progress in the attainment of Christian truth. 
It simply forces the attention of a party to one side 
of the truth and to the ignoring of the other side or 
sides of the truth. After the controversial genera- 
tion has died, some other generation may come 
which is more intent upon finding the truth than 
upon being governed by party names, and then the 
truth may be learned. Not even yet are we in a po- 
sition to grasp the whole of the truth under discus- 
sion at the Synod of Dort. Controversy engenders 
passions which destroy that temper of mind which is 
essential for receiving the guidance of the Spirit. It 
is like rivalry in athletic sports, which is beneficial 
only so long as men keep in good humor. 

Those who are accustomed to seek the guidance 
of the Holy Spirit in learning duty might formulate 
the maxim that we must free ourselves from wilful- 
ness respecting our future conduct and prepare our- 
selves to do that which we least like to do. Desires 
cannot be put away at the bidding of one’s will. 
Wilful determination to have one’s own way can be 
set aside. So in seeking truth one can put aside the 
determination to prove that what has previously 
seemed to be the truth is all that there is to know of 
the truth. One must put aside the belief that he has 
arrived at the exact truth, or that he has reached the 
best or proper mode of stating the truths which are 
most firmly established or most fully proven. There- 
fore v should be restated thus: 


THE AGENCY OF THE: HOLY SPIRIT BA 


v. The development of the conviction that neither 
side has been wholly right, and the beginning of an 
honest attempt to see what truth each party held and 
any elements which both may have overlooked, and 
then a conformity to the normal mode of attaining 
the truth. | 

The conclusion at this point is that the proper 
mode of securing the guidance of the Holy Spirit 
into the truth is first and always to guard oneself 
against falling into a controversial spirit, for this so 
limits one’s receptivity of truth as to make him una- 
ble to receive the promise. Then he should hold 
himself as closely to the normal method as possible. 

6. Another point of absorbing interest is the_rela- 
tion of the Holy Spirit to the Bible and of both to 
Christian knowledge. 

a. In a true sense, the Holy Spirit is the author of 
the Bible. The Bible is a body or selection of litera- 
ture which originated in the midst of a religious life 
molded by the special redemptive agency of the Holy 
Spirit. The portion of literature which has come 
to us as the Bible was selected under the influence of 
the Holy Spirit as being specially adapted to the 
religious needs of men. The influence of the Holy 
Spirit in guiding this selection was undoubtedly of 
the same character as that which appears in the for- 
mation of the Christian consciousness. It was inter- 
nal evidence of the Spirit authenticating the writings 
selected as those which were necessary to express his 


180 THE SUPREME LEADER 


mind and which would be useful for the development 
of the redeemed life. 

b. The Scriptures hold the important position of 
being the sole external authority respecting the way 
of salvation, which has been given to men. We may 
believe, if we will, that the Holy Spirit has led the 
Church into some interpretations of the Scripture 
which are of an authoritative nature, but we cannot 
feel justified in placing these interpretations on the 
same level with Scripture, because we base these in- 
terpretations upon the Scriptures themselves, and we 
derive the authority of the interpretation from the 
authority which the Scripture itself possesses. It is 
but a truism to say that that which is derived may 
never have the same authority as that from which it 
is derived. . 

There is no evidence that the Holy Spirit gives any 
other external standard of religious truth than that 
which he has already developed under his own guid- 
ance, z. €., these very Scriptures. We find no evi- 
dence for believing that any religious teachings are 
authoritative which are neither taught nor implied in 
the Bible. If the Scriptures were the outgrowth of a 
religious life which was formed under the influence of 
the Redemptive Spirit, then the revelations recorded 
in the Bible and the results of the present Christian 
experience are different phases of the same divine 
manifestations and are in harmony with each other. 

There is no intimation in Scripture that the revela- 


EEE AGENCY AOE PHRA HOLVe SPIRIT. 181 


tion thus far given stands in any such relation to a 
future revelation in the present world’s history as the 
relation between the Old Testament and the New. 
The solemn passage (Gal. 1:8) in which Paul warns 
against any other gospel, points to this gospel as a 
finality—so far as gospels are concerned. When this. 
world’s history and the present opportunity for re- 
ceiving the grace of Christ shall have come to an end, 
then some other ministration of the Spirit, or some 
new revelation may be ushered in, but there is no 
reason to think that that would reverse the purpose 
and principles revealed in this revelation of re- 
demptive grace. Whatever illumination the Holy 
Spirit now gives is in line with revelation already 
given and is a continuation or interpretation of that 
fevelation:, While, therefore,’ the) Holy’ ~Spirit: is 
pledged to all believers as their guide, he gives this 
guidance by interpreting the Scriptures in the heart 
of the believer and thus vindicating their authority 
for the life of believers and the faith of the Church. 
c. The one authoritative interpreter of Scripture is 
the Holy Spirit. He “has no deputy in the Church.” 
There is a necessity of an interpreter. A written 
word, no matter how precise, can be misconstrued. 
The laws of a nation are the amplest proof of this 
statement which could be needed. No small part of 
the function of the judiciary consists in the interpre- 
tation of principles contained in the laws and the ap- 
plication of those principles. The written word of 


182 THE SUPREME LEADER 


sacred Scripture needs an interpreter, and the proof 
is found not alone from analogy, but from the diverse 
and contradictory teachings claimed to be derived 
from Scripture. Of course, the Roman Catholic po- 
sition of a delegated power in the Church, 7¢. é., in the 
clergy, z. €.,in the Pope of Rome, is superficially the 
most simple solution of any difficulties, but the ver- 
dict of history is against it. The Protestant position 
is that in religious knowledge we come to truth “first 
by the external word, then by the working of God’s 
Spirit inwardly.” 

Sometimes we speak of “ the self-evidencing power 
of the Bible.’ This phrase is somewhat ambiguous. 
Sometimes we appeal to the human reason with the 
confident expectation that the Biblical statements 
respecting religious truth, respecting human duties 
and respecting sin and the need of a Saviour, will 
command the ready assent of the human reason. The 
result is often a disappointment. Scripture and 
geometry are not alike in the character of the evi- 
dence upon. which they are based. If it were not for 
the blinding effects of sin, it is probable that men 
would generally assent to the truths of the Bible. 
The normal action of the human mind is unquestion- 
ably an action responsive to all the truth which it is 
capable of apprehending. But when can normal 
action of the human mind be found, until the regen- 
erating and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit has 
been fully accomplished? ‘The self-evidencing 


THE AGENCY ORV THE HOLY, SPIRIT 183 


power of the Bible” properly means that when a 
man gives free course to the Spirit immanent within 
him, he cannot but-assent to the testimony of the 
Spirit in the written Word. Thus it is to be seen 
that the work of the Spirit, as interpreter, includes 
that of convincing men of the truths in Scripture, 
and this work is needed by both Christians and un-= 
repentant sinners in order to overcome the pervert- 
ing effects of sin. | 

The nature of Scripture itself demands an inter- 
preter, as well as the limitations in human nature 
consequent upon sin. It is impossible for one 
written word to present truth with equal -plain- 
ness to every generation. The Bible comes nearer 
to doing this than any other literature that the world 
has. It has those characteristics described.as pure 
art.4? There is much in the Bible, especially in the 
words of Jesus and the utterances of the Psalmists, 
which speaks alike to every generation. This is not 
the case with all the Scriptures. In a very impor- 
tant sense they are incomplete.. They record the 
revelation of God’s truth to the apprehension of cer- 
tain particular generations which were receiving a 
redemptive education. The people were changing 
under the influence of their education, their capacity 
to apprehend religious truth was subject to increase 
from the merest rudiments, and the changes are 
apparent in the language and thoughts. The lan- 
euage was changing, and yet it was the garb, rather 


184 THE SUPREME LEADER 


the incarnation, of eternal truth. Not infrequently the 
Scripture gives the solution of some temporary prob- 
lem by the application of a permanent truth, which 
truth needs to be disentangled from its temporary 
connection so as to be applicable to diverse condi- 
tions. 

Language used by finite minds must change as the 
minds change. A finite mind grows away from one 
group of conceptions to another, grows away from 
the language embodying those conceptions, and it 
compels the language to grow with the changing 
thought. Every stage of experience through which 
the finite mind passes is reflected in its language, 
and language of the outgrown experience becomes a 
“dead language.” There is need of the guidance of 
the Spirit as interpreter whenever the human mind 
of any subsequent century deals with the language 
and literature of the first Christian century, or of the 
preparatory stages of revelation, and strives to enter 
anew into the thought and experience of those for- 
meiages.) | 

It must always be remembered that a most mar- 
velous feature of the Bible is not simply that it 
concerns the exalted subjects which it does, nor 
even, in addition, that it has such literary qualities 
that the centuries have not made it an obsolete litera- 
ture, but rather that the centuries only reveal its 
inexhaustible freshness and its ever-increasing power 
of inspiration. Before the production of this litera- 


RAP OAGINGY “ORs LAE HOLY SPIREL 185 


ture, it might have been reasonable to assume that a 
revelation could not be given to men and recorded 
in one century and in such a form that it would be 
equally valuable for men twenty centuries later. This 
incredible thing was done. The revelation was given 
to finite men. It was recorded in the language of 
the men of the time of the revelation, and was intel- 
ligible to those for whom it was originally recorded, 
yet it was left in a form which should be not less true 
when the human mind should have made greater 
advances in understanding itself. 

There has been growth in the application of the 
principles of Christianity. This is illustrated by the 
growth during Biblical times, and the principle of the 
divine economy is illustrated in the answer of Jesus 
fespecting divorce (Matt. 19:8). (If the truth, as 
we know it, had been stated to the Jews by Jesus, 
probably all of his disciples would have left him 
instead of the many (John 6: 66). It was left for 
the Spirit of truth to lead forward the body of be- 
lievers as rapidly as they could advance into a fuller 
apprehension of the principles of the Gospel and of 
their application. 

It must be said that under the providence of God 
the Scriptures came into a form adapted to the needs 
of the time of production, but the form was a drapety 
which reveals while it covers the truth. ° Truths, prin- 
ciples were so embodied that they are free to be 
applied to immense territories of life and thought of 


186 - THE SUPREME LEADER 


. which those who first heard them knew nothing, and of 
which they were incapable of forming any conception. 

Scripture itself (2 Pet. 1:20, 21) teaches that in 
the interpretation of Scripture the Holy Spirit is the 
sole leader, the only competent guide. He is also 
the sole leader in the progress of understanding the 
Scriptures, as the human race advances into new 
experiences and thought and as it becomes conscious 
of new needs. This is largely done through the con- 
stant development of the Christian consciousness, in 
equal pace with the increase in experience and broad- 
ening of thought. 

Progress in the knowledge of Christian truth means 
increasing ability to apprehend the meaning of the 
recorded facts and teachings which center in the 
incarnation, life, sufferings, death and resurrection of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a progress which was 
to be expected. Only stagnation or death could 
prevent it. Real progress is always from the par- 
tially known to the more perfectly known. It is in 
virtue of this essential nature of progress that a creed 
has temporary usefulness; it is a opos, boundary. 
No creed, no statement of the content of Christian 
consciousness can rightly be presented to the world 
as a final boundary and description of the included 
area of Christian thought or truth. It is a mark of 
imperfect faith in the Holy Spirit as the present guide 
of Christ’s disciples, if one dare not order a resurvey 
of this territory. 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 187 


If the Word of God was living and operative 
because it was energized by the Holy Spirit, the 
same presence in it is as effective as ever. It is just 
this presence in it which makes a progress in the 
apprehension of. it possible. While it was impossible 
to state the truth in a form which should be appli- 
cable to succeeding centuries in precisely the same 
way, the permanent truth actually was so exemplified 
_ or embodied that it could be freshly applied to each 
generation. More than this, a profounder meaning 
is revealed from generation to generation. It is one 
and the self-same Spirit who taught at the first and 
who continues to teach. Thus, except in the sense 
in which the complete is opposed to the partial, there 
is no reason to fear that the truth of the fortieth cen- 
tury will oppose that of the first or that of the 
minetcenth.  [he-factis that the*Bible cis a living 
book, it always has been, and since the Spirit of God 
is its life, its identity must remain forever. 


CHART TR IV. 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE EXECU- 
TION OF THE KINGLY OFFICE OF 
JESUS CHRIST 


The Holy Spirit has made known the mind and 
also the will of Jesus Christ, leading to the evangel- 
ization of the world. Since the ascension of Jesus 
Christ his activity has been most manifest in the 
redemptive service of the Christian Church. Aside 
from the regenerating work we must think of the 
work of the Holy Spirit as largely immanent in rul- 
ing as well as in teaching the Church. It is by such 
operations that the life of the Church has been carried 
on; civic life has grown more and more humane from 
century to century, education and culture have become 
more and more free from unholy taint, and have been 
made to express and to promote what is pure and 
spiritual rather than what is fleshly. Commerce and 
industries have been brought more and more to min- 
ister to the higher ranges of man’s Pres rather than 
to serve the lower. | 

The kingly work of Jesus Christ, which is performed 
by the Holy Spirit as his representative, includes the 
establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. For 
the accomplishment of this result the Spirit uses 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 189 


every instrumentality which human life affords. The 
family, school, state, commerce and every form of 
industry are subservient to this end. One institution 
has been organized for the sole purpose of making 
men citizens of the kingdom of God and of training 
them up for it. This is the Church. 
1. The Holy Spirit is the life of the Church, the 
organizing energy within the Church. He unites the 
different members with each other into a body which | 
becomes the visible body of the glorified Redeemer. 
Just as in the primeval chaos he was the principle of 
order and organization, so he is likewise the principle 
of order in this world of individual believers, who 
have been regenerated and have come into normal 
relations with God. Sometimes persons speak of the 
life in a being as the being itself; thus there are 
found writers who will call the. Holy Spirit the 
Church. While not identical with the Church, the 
Holy Spirit by his presence gives it an organic ex- 
istence. Where he is present in a body of believers, 
there is achurch. Without his presence no organ- 
ization of human beings can be a church. Thus it 
appears that a church is more than a collection of 
individuals who constitute its membership, even 
though they, each and every one, are in the process 
of sanctification. A church is more than a volun- 
tary union of individuals into an organization. The 
organization is due to the Spirit as the prime mover 
who exerts a unifying influence upon the believers. 


190 THE SUPREME LEADER 


The book of Acts exemplifies the organizing proc- 
ess. ‘These all with one accord continued stedfast- 
ly in prayer” (1:14). There was growth as there 
is in a physical organism. ‘‘ They then that received 
his word were baptized” (2:41). The organizing 
of this addition is thus described, “And they contin- 
ued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellow- 
ship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers” 
(2:42); “And the multitude of them that believed 
were ‘of one heart and soul” (4:32). “‘So the 
church throughout all Judaa and Galilee and Sama- 
ria had peace, being edified; and walking in the fear 
of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, 
was multiplied” (9:31). Itis the unifying of heart, 
the union of purpose, the harmonizing of intention 
and desire which manifest the organizing energy of 
the Holy Spirit when he constitutes a church. 

This work of the Spirit is given more in detail in 
Eph. 4: 11-16: “And he gave some to be apostles ; 
and some, prophets; and some, evangelists ; and 
some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the 
saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the build- 
ing up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto 
the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the 
Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure 
of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we may 
be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried 
about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of 
men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speak- 


PIREIAGENCY: OF ‘THE HOLY-SPIRIT IQI 


ing truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, 
who is the head, even Christ; from whom all the body 
fitly framed and knit together through that which 
every joint supplieth, according to the working in due 
measure of each several part, maketh the increase of 
the body unto the building up of itself in love.” The 
Holy Spirit is the agent in the process thus described 
by Paul. Where these processes are present there is 
a church; an organization which does not show any 
part of this process shows no evidence of being a 
church. | 

An organism is a unit. Is there unity in the 
Church of Christ on earth ? Yes, says one branch 
of the visible Church, and all claimants beside are 
schismatics. No, says one who realizes that it is the 
Spirit who makes the Church by his constant pres- 
ence, giving life and power. When men of selfish 
character, or with a narrow vision of the Christian 
life, attain ecclesiastical preeminence, they are apt to | 
attempt to put fetters upon church life; then the life 
of the Spirit must burst those restraints or cease to 
exist. » Hence it is that many of the divisions of the 
visible Church of Christ have come into existence. 
They are like the fragments of truth in Milton’s alle- 
gory. In spite of all the errors of the past the 
unity of the Spirit is asserting itself mightily at the 
present time. 

Other divisions have arisen through the influence 
of men who also have narrow visions of truth, or im- 


192 THE SUPREME LEADER 


perfect perspective of the Christian life, and who do 
not have positions of ecclesiastical preeminence, or 
cannot retain these positions. These men, failing to 
force their opinions upon others, seek a following and 
lead off into divisions. They speak a vision, in part 
at least, out from their own heart. Sometimes the 
extreme of individualism is exemplified in them. 

2. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. He 
forms a church consciousness. The fully developed 
Christian consciousness includes a church conscious- 
ness. In common use the Christian consciousness 
has little reference to a church; it is concerned 
simply with the inner life, the personal relation with 
God; it is the religious, the Godward consciousness 
of the man who knows himself to be redeemed 
through the works and merits of Jesus Christ. Jesus 
Christ redeems men not merely from sin, but into a 
brotherhood. He, through the Spirit of promise, 
develops a new consciousness, the corporate con- 
sciousness of believers, the sense of brotherhood in 
Christ. This consciousness was a characteristic of 
Christian believers from the very beginning, as exem- 
plified in the book of Acts and recognized in the 
early heathen testimony, ‘‘ See, how these Christians 
love one another.’ Love to the brethren was con- 
sidered by the apostle (1 John 3:14) essential to any 
evidence that a man was a Christian. Love necessi- 
tates harmony and is an essential element in the 
church consciousness. This consciousness is more 


THE “AGENCY. OFS THE HOLY “SPIRIT 193 


than Christian love; it includes the sense of being in 
brotherly relation with all fellow disciples, and a feel- 
ing of especial obligation toward all those who are of 
the household of faith. Since it is a portion of the 
complete Christian consciousness, it is capable of de- 
velopment or deterioration. Its presence necessitates 
external organization; the organization in turn is 
essential to the complete development of a mature 
Christian consciousness. This cannot properly ma- 
ture in-a church life where ecclesiasticism is domi- 
nant, for that smothers it. It cannot grow in the 
presence of the spirit of individualism, for that dwarfs it. 

The fruitage of church consciousness as indicated 
in the New Testament is harmony, unity of pur- 
pose, a common worship, fellowship in love and 
life. In this consciousness there is the sense. of 
belonging to a body the head of which is Christ, a 
body with the function of serving him, the goal of 
whose service is the establishment of a kingdom 
of redemption, the perfected kingdom of God. 

3. The Holy Spirit is the heart of the Church, for 
from him are the issues of the life of the Church. 
He uses the body as the instrument for carrying out 
the will of Christ, the head. He enables the Church 
to know the mind of Christ and to express this mind 
by the perpetuation of his life of self-abnegation, of 
unselfish service. As Jesus Christ came into this 
world with the master passion of seeking and saving 
that which was lost, so the Church goes forth with the 

14 


194 THE SUPREME LEADER 


same passion, longing to fill up that which is behind 
of the afflictions of Christ. 

The Holy Spirit, therefore, executes the kingly 
office of Christ and rules in his body, the Church, 
The mind of Christ, the head, is always to be sought 
through the Spirit, and accepted from the Spirit and 
from no other source. This utterly excludes any merely 
human origin of church government and it has no 
harmony with the formalism of ecclesiasticism. 

It is certain that the Spirit has adapted the forms 
of church life to the varying needs of different times 
and circumstances. No one polity is adapted to 
meet all conflicts in history, all emergencies in perse- 
cution, all phases of life and national customs, all 
degrees of Christian experience. He who would 
force any one form of church life upon all church 
lite has a mechanical, a materialistic view of life. No 
one polity can possibly be the expression of all the 
life which the Spirit of God is organizing in the 
Church’ of Christ. The moment its organization 
ceases to be shaped by the life within, that moment 
ecclesiasticism begins to take precedence of life, to 
cramp the church consciousness, and to intervene 
between the Church and its Head, usurping the place 
of the Spirit. 

The extreme reaction from the peril of ecclesiasti- 
cism is seen in individualism in which a believer is 
tempted to ignore the church consciousness. Life is 
always a subtle harmony of spirit and form, form for 
the sake of giving the spirit proper expression and 


THE AGENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 195 


development. Here is the riddle of the Christian life, 
and it is solved only by the soul who is completely 
responsive to every influence of the Spirit of God; 
the Spirit would, on the one side, hold him in direct — 
communion with the Father of light and the Lord of 
the kingdom, and, on the other, keep him in close 
union with his fellow Christians. 

4. The Holy Spirit is the Advocate of the Church 
before the world. It is his peculiar office to vindi- 
cate the testimony which the Church bears to the 
world. He is present with the Church, convincing 
the world of sin, righteousness and the judement. 
He compels the assent of the world to the need of a 
Saviour, to the truth of the Gospel, to the duty of 
repentance and to the necessity of conversion, 

The Spirit organizes the Church after the norma! type 
of its function in the world, 7. ¢., the development of a 
holy society, in which he makes the very relations of 
the members instruments in transforming their life into 
conformity with that of Christ. Also by means of 
their sense of corporate unity he develops the sense 
of a united mission in the world to do the will of 
Jesus Christ and to express his mind in order to estab- 
lish the kingdom of redemption. Further, he leads 
the Church in the actual work for which it was organ- 
ized, and without the accomplishment of which no 
church can exist, namely the evangelization of the 
world. Having done so much within the Church the 
Spirit completes his work by giving effectiveness to 
the labors of the Church, 


GHAPTER VY 


THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE DEITY, OR THE HOLY SPIRIT 
_ AS A PERSON 


Human craving for knowledge cannot be content 
with the knowledge -of what the Holy Spirit is for 
man. This desire reaches out after the knowledge 
of what he is in himself and in his relations within 
the Deity. There is rightly a feeling that what the 
Deity who is active in the providential government of 
the world is for man depends upon what he is in 
himself. In addition there is the intellectual neces- 
sity to master every realm of knowledge which lies 
before the human mind. Although Scripture has 
no direct utterance on this subject, as on some others 
not of immediate redemptive importance, the follow- 
ing data are suggestive: 

In God’s redemptive revelation he makes himsel: 
known as threefold, Father, Son or Redeemer, anc 
Holy Spirit or Sanctifier ; and in each element of this 
revelation he is God? God-holds the world in abso: 
lute dependence upon himself for its existence, while 
he is nowise dependent upon it; God is eternal anc 
unchangeable in his being; God is love. 

There is society in the Deity (John 1:1, 17: 5, 24) 
and there is a passage (I Cor, 2: 11) which ha 


~ 


LHe. HOLY SPIRIT. IN THE DEITY 197 


been claimed by theologians to indicate that there is 
a certain mode of self-searching in the Deity of which 
the Spirit of God is the special agent of the Deity, 
even as the Son is the special organ of self-manifes- 
fauion.of God -to, man (Heb, 1.2; 3,).+. It) seemisy. of 
doubtful value, for the context hardly commends this 
use of the passage. 

The natural conclusion from these passages is that 
God has revealed himself as triune because he is 
triune, and that the triune God of redemption is the 
triune God of reality. There is no recondite meta- 
physics in this conclusion. The interpretation of the 
Biblical data seems to warrant the following posi- 
tions: The fact that God is absolute and independ- 
ent of the world makes it necessary to believe that 
his existence or mode of being is unmodified by that 
of the world or by its history. The eternal God did 
not, therefore, enter into a new mode of being when 
he entered upon the work of redeeming man. He is 
eternally the God of redemption (Eph. 1:4). Is it 
possible that this absolute and eternal God developed 
from a Monad to a Duad when the “fulness of time”’ 
(Gal. 4: 4) came, and into a Triad after the ascen- 
sion of Jesus Christ? If this is the case, God’s exist- 
ence is bound up with the world’s development in 
_ such a way that he is dependent upon it and there is 
really no God. He is not a Creator, nor is he mas- 
ter of the world; rather is he mastered by it, and | 
therefore he is incapable of free action, and can have 


198 THE SUPREME LEADER 


no moral character. These are conclusions which 
cannot be avoided by any consistent thinker who de- 
nies that God has revealed himself as triune for the 
reason that he is really and eternally triune. 

Is love accidental and temporary in God’s exist- 
ence, or is it essential and permanent? If love is 
accidental or temporary it has no significance, for it 
tells us nothing of God’s nature or character. In 
that case the revelation of God’s fatherhood gives no 
idea of what he really is. It is merely a manifes- 
tation to man of some passing phase of contact of 
the divine and the human which gives no hint of any 
reality. If, however, love is essential or permanent, 
must God depend upon an object external to himself 
for the exercise of his love? Are the beings he cre- 
ates the only objects of the divine love? Or have 
there been other persons than God who have existed 
eternally as the objects of the divine love? In any 
of these contingencies God is not absolute, and, in 
fact, there is no real deity. He is’ dependent upon 
something outside himself for that which is an essen- 
tial element in his nature. Neither are these consid; 
erations recondite metaphysics, they are merely those 
considerations of common sense which men of cood 
judgment apply to the ordinary affairs of every-day 
life. There is one path of escape from the perplexity. 
It is indicated by those Scripture passages which 
speak of society within the Deity, for they show the 
possibility of the eternal exercise of love by the 


THE HOLY -SPIRIT. IN. THE, DELTY 199 


Deity within the Deity. A God absolute and triune 
is a being who could love and be loved whether or 
not there was a being external to himself. 

Thus it appears that the facts of the economical 
Trinity and of revelation fully justify the doctrine of 
the Trinity in reality or the immanent Trinity. The: 
position may be recapitulated as follows: 

‘Khe doctrine of the Fatherhood of God, -and’ of 
holy love as his essential nature, is the fullest concep- 
tion of God which the human mind has yet been 
able to apprehend. Furthermore it must be regarded 
as fairly evident to the thoughtful mind that if love be 
essential to the divine nature, the Scriptural designa- 
tion of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit answers 
the question, How can God be essentially love, and 
how can he be eternally a Father? “It is evident that 
God cannot be essentially what he is not eternally. 
Hither finite beings have existed eternally and have 
eternally been the objects of divine love, and God 
has thereby been dependent upon their existence for 
the exercise of his essential nature as Father and for 
the manifestation of his essential character of love, 
or there has been Fatherhood and Sonship and the 
exercise of reciprocal love within the Deity itself. 
Thus is God absolute in his freedom from depend- 
ence upon anything outside of himself. 

The eternal Fatherhood and Sonship, each condi- 
tioning and necessitating the other within Deity and 
both necessary to the being of a God who is essen- 


200 THE SUPREME LEADER 


tially love, are not ‘beyond the apprehension and 
acceptance of the intellect when they are revealed. It 
is true, also, that the perfection of social love is not 
found where there are only two persons loving each 
other, where there are Thou and I being mutually 
subject and object in loving. It is necessary that 
there be a third subject and object in order that love 
may be freed from an egoistic element. The analo- 
gies of the human family are suggestive. 

The Scriptural teaching that love is a permanent 
element in the nature of God, and the doctrine of the 
Fatherhood and Sonship in the Deity as the basis of 
the transcendent and transeunt Deity in relation to 
the finite creation, gives a real unity and absolute- 
ness to God. This does not furnish the full founda- 
tion for the economical conception of God as taught 
in the Bible, for that shows a third member in the 
Deity when it teaches the immanence of God in cre- 
ation as coming to pass through the Spirit. 

The relations of the Spirit in Deity are beyond our 
grasp. If 4 Cor. 2:11 had all the significance which 
some thinkers suppose, we might conceive the Spirit 
as the power of intellection, and subordinate to both 
the Father and Son, yet no more separate from them 
than the Son is from the. Father upon whom they 
both are dependent for the completeness of their 
being in the one absolute God, and who in turn com- 
plete the being of the Father. Is the Spirit imma- 
nent within them as he is in the created world? Is 


THE. HOBY “SPIRID AN: THE DEITY 201 


he the life of God within God? If one wishes to 
speak of the Trinity as being life, light and love, it 
may be remembered that so far as this world is con-~ 
cerned the Father is represented in Scripture as the 
fountain of love and the Spirit as the one who gives 
life. If one attempts to apply such conceptions to 
the infinite and uncreated God, he passes beyond the 
capacity of thought. Man has no language with 
which to express these supersensible realities, and he 
has no experience in this realm of being which would 
enable him to form true conceptions, if he had a suit- 
able language. 

Enough is revealed for us to accept the Spirit as 
the Lord and Giver of life whose right it is to be 
worshiped and glorified. 

The human mind rebels against the acceptance of 
these limitations to our knowledge of the Holy Spirit. 
Hence some thinkers go far afield in their specula- 
tions. They would prove not only that the Trinity 
can be justified to the reason, but that its necessity 
can be derived from the reason without having re- 
course to Scripture. They would prove that an ab- 
solute person must be triune. This may be true. In 
fact, since the absolute God is triune, it is presuma- 
bly true that he could not have been different from 
what he is, and thaf he is triune by the very necessity 
of absolute personality. We can accept all this as the 
truth after we learn the facts, but human reason 
transcends itself when it attempts to prove what is 


202 . THE SUPREME LEADER 


the necessary form of the infinite and absolute per- 
sonality. 

It may be that in a future state of existence our 
finite minds may enter into experiences which will 
make it possible to gain a more profound and satis- 
factory knowledge of this great mystery than is pos- 
sible to attain during this life. For this unveiling we 
can patiently wait, if this life is filled with a growing 
sense of the divine fellowship. Also, during this time 
of waiting any speculation concerning the mystery of 
the Trinity, which does not interfere with Christian 
service, is justifiable to the thinker who does not 
transeress the Scripture, and who will remember that 
his speculation is a speculation. An illustration of 
such a speculation, at once ingenious and interesting, 
and very suggestive, may be found on pages 131-139 
of “Popular Lectures on Theological Themes,” by 
Dr. Archibald A. Hodge. 

The doctrine has philosophical value and practical 
value which ought never to be overlooked. 

Its philosophical value is that it presents God as an 
absolute being, transcending the universe and imma- 
nent in it, and as a personal Spirit who takes man 
into fellowship with himself. It answers the question 
how God can be an absolute unit and with manifold 
powers produce and sustain the ‘universe ; how he 
may be eternally active although the physical uni- 
verse might not be in existence. 

Its practical value is in making it conceivable to 


THE NEED OF THE HOLY Spirit 203 


man that he can enter into the closest personal fel- 
lowship with the absolute God. God as an absolute 
unity crushes the human spirit or so awes it that fel-- 


lowship and love are impossible. The light and ~~ 


warmth of the divine love have come into human life 
through the person of the Son, and the Holy Spirit 
is ever kindling a response so that no child of man 
need have any tormenting fear to hinder a perfect 
fellowship of love between God and himself, 


STUDY IV 


THE HOLY SPIRIT AND CHRISTIAN LIFE AND SER- 
VICE 


In the light of the previous discussion it is not too 
much to say that an intelligent grasp of the relations 
of the Holy Spirit with man is essential to maturity 
and symmetry of the Christian life and to effectiveness 
of Christian service. The most important practical 
questions concern— 


I. The necessity of the Holy Spirit for effective 
Christian service. 

II. The modes in which the Holy Spirit makes 
Christian service efficient, and the value of these 
modes. 

Hike The -evidence that the Spirit is present in a 
human life according to the capacity and needs of 
the. individual. 

IV. The conditions which must be fulfilled in 
order that the Holy Spirit may become operative 
in a human life according to the needs and capacity 
of the individual. 


CEA Dat 


THE. NEED OF THE’ HOLY. SPIRIT FOR- EFFECTIVE 
CHRISTIAN SERVICE 


The Christian believer needs to have as a constant 
element of his religious consciousness, the back- 
ground of conviction, more or less definite, that the — 
Holy Spirit is a Cosmic Spirit present in all human 
life, that he is a Redemptive Spirit, active in restoring 
human life to its normal type and in enabling men to 
work effectively for this restoration; yet more, he 
should have the conviction that unless the Spirit's 
redemptive activity accompanie$ the Christian work- 
ers efforts all his labors are in vain. These convic- 
tions are necessary conditions for both maturity of 
Christian character and markedly effective spiritual 
activity. [he successful worker is perfectly aware of 
his entire dependence upon the Holy Spirit. 

Whoever would win men into the Christian life, or 
into the fulness of Christian privilege, must gain the 
‘will to believe.’ Preaching, whether brilliant, elo- 
quent, or instructive, social qualities ever so winning, 
learning—in short, everything that a minister may 
desire and ought to seek, will fail to be an equiva- 
lent for the help of the Spirit in gaining the will to 
believe. If he is present he will make all these 


206 THE SUPREME LEADER 


equipments accomplish the results for which they are 
adapted. The minister, the Sunday-school teacher, 
the Christian worker of whatever kind, should accept 
the fact that the work of convincing men of sin, 
righteousness and judgment is only another phrase 
for securing the will to believe, and that this work is 
that of the Holy Spirit, not that of man. 

The will not to believe is so constant a factor in 
the heart of man that in order to overcome it there 
is needed more power than a human being can put 
forth. There. is somewhere needed the touch of 
conviction that a speaker's words are words of sin- 
cerity and of genuine knowledge. In the stress of a 
political campaign, the overbearing will of one man 
carries with it the wills of other men so that they 
will to vote even though they may not will to believe, 
yet the latter result is not rare. Thus it may occur 
with a preacher, but the result is hardly of the best 
type. What is needed is that the Spirit produce in 
the mind of the hearer, through the agency employed, 
a clear perception of the reality and importance of 
the result toward which the speaker’s words tend, 
and that this perception be followed by so keen a 
sense of the necessity of acting in accordance with 
the truth that the hearer will actually put to the test 
the reality of the truth which his intellect has accepted. 
The mere words alone of a preacher may be felt to 
be true, but this does not secure their full acceptance. 
They are brought home to the conscience of hearers 


THE NEED OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 207 


by the exemplification of the truth in the lives of 
other persons. This appeal to the conscience is the 
office of the Holy Spirit. It is thus that he com- 
monly secures that will to believe which has been so’ 
persistently withholden. 

This convincing operation of the Holy Spirit may 
be so undervalued by the Christian worker and so 
neglected that it will not accompany him. He may 
be so filled with overestimation of the value of the 
_ instruments which the Spirit customarily uses that he 
will become insensible to the need of this power 
which is essential to his success. Failure is sure 
to follow. 

On the other hand, the securing of conversions is 
not the only thing for which Christians should labor. 
When their words and life help each other to secure 
a higher type of spiritual life, the Spirit is present in 
them with convincing power. Immediateness of re- 
sults is not to bethe measure of his presence with 
Christian workers. The faith of missionaries and 
ministers through even decades of apparently fruit- 
less labor has sometimes been used by the Spirit as 
most effective means in producing the will to be- 
lieve. 

There is no Christian service worthy the name 
without the Spirit. Theology, knowledge, teaching, 
organization, ceremonial worship, words, profession, 
all these by themselves are inefficient—they are dry 
bones. The Holy Spirit alone can give them life. 


208 THE SUPREME LEADER 


Without his presence man has no qualification for 
work. ‘ 

Christ himself did not enter upon his ministry 
until the gift had come at his baptism. The disci- 
ples were not to begin work until he should have 
come. Then there was a sealing of the Spirit—a 
setting apart for God’s own possession; then came 
the fulness of the Spirit, excluding weakness and 
giving power; then was there an anointing of the 
Spirit, opening the eyes of the understanding, and 
giving discernment. By all these, the disciples came 
‘nto “acontact with the inner movements of divine 
power.” 


om te 


Clip ERA Uh 


THE MODES IN WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT MAKES 
CHRISTIAN SERVICE EFFICIENT AND THE VALUE 
OF THESE MODES 


There are three modes in which the Spirit may be 
present with a Christian, making his service efficient 
in winning others to a Christlike character. 

I. In one phase, the Spirit’s presence bestows 
upon the Christian conscious power for service. 
This he does by giving him added energy in the 
performance of special duties, incisive or persuasive 
utterance, unwonted insight or wisdom for the per- 
formance of duty, and, best of all, the gift of prevail- 
ing prayer. The reader of the life of President 
Finney will find illustrations, This is the gift to 
which men give the name “ power,” or ‘‘enduement 
erate Spirit.” 

2. A second phase of the Spirit’s presence with a 
Christian in his service is that of the unconscious 
power of a fully consecrated life. The thing which 
Mie y trae ‘Christian seeks in his service. is effective- 
ness. He does not weary himself with striving for 
“effect,” but he labors to secure Christlike character 
in the lives of others. Whether he has consciousness 
of power, a mastering personality, or receives credit 

15 


210 THE SUPREME LEADER 


for great results, his one desire is to yield Jesus 
Christ that service which is due to the Master. He 
hopes that this service may be a blessing to other 
souls. He knows full well that the Spirit may cause 
his service to be effective, even though he never has 


¥ 
any sense of uncommon power, and does not even 


know of the fruits of his labor. God rarely or never 
puts his faithful servants to this test. Nevertheless, 
in this phase of the Spirit's presence, the Christian 
has no consciousness of special power, and never 
knows more than a small fraction of the good which 
he does. The power follows his labor, and thus ful- 
fils the promise of John 16: 7-13. 

This power comes by indirection, as the result of a 
man’s seeking the sanctifying presence of the Holy 
Spirit in his soul. In proportion as the sanctifying 
grace of the Spirit is vigorous in a man’s life, in that 
proportion is the man fitted to be used and to have 
his service accompanied by this: power of which he 
knows nothing. 

Further, this fulness of the sanctifying grace is a 
most important condition for the reception of the 
enduement of the Spirit. More and more evident is 
it that in the providence of God the fruits of the 
Spirit are an essential condition for gaining the spe- 
cial gifts of the Spirit. 

3. A third phase is the efficiency given to the 
faithful development and use of a man’s natural ca- 
pacities. These are given and maintained by -the 


* 


elise es 


EFFICIENT CHRISTIAN SERVICE 211 


Holy Spirit, the Cosmic Spirit, and he may be ex- 
pected to honor their right use. 
A vague impression seems to be common that the » 
gifts and the power of the Spirit are antagonistic to 
the natural powers ofa man. This impression is due a 
- partly to ignorance, and partly to the failure to-die- 
criminate between the use of one’s natural powers 
relying on self alone, and the equally industrious use 
of the natural powers in full reliance upon the Holy 
Spirit for the proper results. In this error it is as- 
sumed that.a man can be used most easily by the 
Holy Spirit if he places no dependence upon natural 
capacities and looks to God to bestow upon him the 
needed wisdom for action or utterance, at:the  mo- 
ment of need. The “ power” becomes cant. It is 
thought to consist in fluent expression of rambling 
utterance, or in volubility of fluent utterance of reli- 
gious language. This is called extempore, and the 
fact that itis uttered with ease is regarded as proof 
that the Spirit gave the man especial aid in its 
utterance. The person insults the Spirit of God 
when he attributes to him any share in the author- 
ship of such utterances. This vague belief in the 
‘readiness of the Spirit to seize a man whenever the 
man will let him, is an excuse for indolent or fitful 
cultivation of one’s natural capacities, and sometimes 
for their entire neglect. 
This delusion is fatal as regards the complete suc- 
cess of a man in his work. It is no honor to the 


212 THE SUPREME LEADER 


Spirit of God to seek his special gift of power while 
neglecting his permanent gift of capacity. Even 
heathen knew that such a course was unreasonable.' 
A man dishonors the Holy Spirit when he neglects 
or belittles the cultivation of his mental faculties. 
The proper cultivation of these is a most reverent 
mode of seeking the superadded gift of power. The 
sword is’most effective when it has a keen edge, the 
arrow has furthest flight and most penetrating power 
when it is polished. It was the servant of Jehovah 
who had these characteristics (Isa. 49:2). 

It is true that Christ told his disciples not to worry 
beforehand as to what they should say when their 
persecutors should drag them before heathen tribu- 
nals, and he told them also that it would not be they 
who spoke in those emergencies, but the Holy Spirit. 
Let no one forget that this was a promise for great 
emergencies, intended to enable them to accomplish 
their ordinary duties with the most untroubled exer- 
cise of their natural faculties. It is irrational to make 
a promise for great emergencies the principle of all 
conduct in life. The promise for an emergency has 
all the more value if, in the days when there is no 
emergency, the man_ shall have used his natural 
capacities to the. fullest extent. The more rich his 
resources of power, the larger variety of effective 
utterance is offered for the use of the Spirit at the 
time of emergency. The man who neglects the full 
development of natural capacity, the ordinary cift of 


ey, Sis aed 


EFFICIENT CHRISTIAN SERVICE 213 


God’s Spirit, and then offers himself as a candidate 
for special gifts, insults the Holy Spirit in the very 
act. There is no greater peril for the untrained. 
Christian worker. In its outcome, it is no more rev- 
erent than the attitude of him who denies all special 
power. In fact this idea that the Spirit stands ready 
to use any man as an instrument, providing only that 
he is willing to be used, is destructive of reverence. . 

These natural powers are the fundamental manifes- 
tation of the Holy Spirit in man, and are a basis of 
all redemptive operations and of the special gifts. 
There is no antagonism between one phase of the 
Spirit's presence in man and another. When a man’s 
natural powers are in an abnormal condition by rea- 
son of sin, the rectification into a normal condition is 
in harmony with natural powers, and so each of the 
various phases of the Spirit’s presence with the Chris- 
tian is harmonious with the ethers, and is also auxil- 
lary to the others. There is an antagonism between 
the presence of the Holy Spirit and the self-sufficiency 
of the defectively sanctified Christian, puffed up with 
intellectual attainments, social gifts or energetic activ- 
ity. Likewise, the special presence of the Holy Spirit 
is antagonistic to the belittling of the ordinary pres- 
ence of the Spirit as-utilized and honored by a full 
development of man’s natural powers. 

4. The right attitude toward these various forms of 
the Spirit’s presence. 

There is great need of a clear conception of the 


24 THE SUPREME: LEADER 


attitude which the Christian should maintain toward 
the different modes in which the Spirit may render his 
service efficient. Lack of discernment has plunged 
immature and unthinking believers into grievous 
errors in every age’of the Church, from the days of 
Paul and the Corinthians to the present time. Good 
intentions and zeal for God have been no safeguard 
against the grossest mischiefs. Probably no errors 
have been more harmful to the lives of believers than 
the misconceptions respecting the Holy Spirit. These 
errors have caused spiritual pride and conceit, indo- 
lence, fanaticism, and fearful self-deceptions in which 
the common teachings of morality were set at nought. 
‘These errors also caused reaction, so that the truth 
respecting the Spirit was ignored or denied. 

The modes in which the Spirit is present with 
Christians have been estimated thoughtlessly in pro- 
portion to glitter rather than in proportion to their 
intrinsic excellence. That which should be sought 
first of all and which is attended by least peril of 
pride is the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, for 
here the Spirit uses the man when he is most uncon- 
scious of being an instrument. The fruitfulness of 


lives thus sanctified is beyond all estimate. The man _ 


is keptin a wise ignorance; he can grow in faith; by 
loyal obedience to the Spirit’s presence with him he 
can accomplish a work of great magnitude and with- 
out observation. Indeed, it is by the great multitude 
of such lives that the kingdom is chiefly advanced. 


= 
ery oy 


EFFICIENT CHRISTIAN SERVICE 215 


That which is to be sought next is the consecrated 
development of one’s ordinary gifts of natural capac- 
ity.. The fullest cultivation of these is the most rev- .. 
erent mode of seeking extraordinary power. The 
richest results of this phase of the presence of the 
Spirit come only in connection with the sanctifying 
grace of the Spirit. The two fully conjoined give 
more of the presence of the Spirit in a human life 
than is commonly known among Christians. They 
are due to the ordinary laws of grace and nature, and - 
any believer can take advantage of these laws and 
gain the power which comes from character and abil- 
ity. This second phase of the Spirit’s presence is 
liable to more temptations than the first. An unre- 
- generate man can cultivate his natural capacities to a 
high degree as well as the Christian, and do it for 
selfish ends. The Christian is liable to the tempta- 
_ tion to do the same thing, and to use his gifts self- 
ishly. This, of course, means deterioration in spirit- 
ual power, culminating in its utter loss, 

When the Christian has faithfully sought the other 
phases of the presence of the Spirit of God in his life 
of service, he has a right to ask the Spirit of God to 
make his labor as effective as possible. The gift of 
power, or of effectiveness, is no substitute for the 
other gifts. It is simply for the purpose of intensify- 
ing their efficiency. 

Great perils attend this gift. They are in .propor- 
tion to the show and glitter of the gift. The first 


216 THE SUPREME LEADER 


peril is that of seeking the gift for the sake of its 
notoriety. There is danger of thinking that nobody 
has the presence of the Spirit except those who 
are in the public gaze. This great gift derives a large 
portion of its efficiency from the support of the great 
number of Christians who faithfully serve God with- 
out the gift of power, and use the other gifts in all 
fidelity and humility. 

A man might well shrink from the gift of power 
which would take him into publicity with its manifold 
temptations, but there is one form of the gift of 
power, and the highest form of all, which every be- 
liever may well seek for himself. It is the gift of 
power in prayer. This is a gift which can be exer- 
cised in obscurity, and is least open to the tempta- 
tion of spiritual pride. The grace of humility is very 
sure to accompany this gift. It seems as though 
this gift were commonly bestowed upon humble and 
obscure women whom the providence of God had 
excluded from the active duties of Christian life. 

Publicity in the exercise of the gift of power opens 
the way for spiritual pride. He who has learned that 
this gift of power has been bestowed upon him needs 
great grace not to fall into the sin of censorious 
thought and speech. It also has the perils of self- 
consciousness, of attitudinizing in the Christian ser- 
vice, and of subjectivity. There is danger of forming 
the habit of looking to one’s feelings and impulses 
for all indications of divine guidance, to the utter neg- 


EFFICIENT CHRISTIAN SERVICE 217 


lect of external providence. There is danger of 
defying all indications of duty, save one’s feelings. 
It is sometimes appalling to hear the confident claims ~ 
of divine guidance on the part of the immature or 
narrow-minded Christian whose whole reason is feel- 
ing, who grounds his assertion wholly on fecling, and 
who defies every dictate of the Spirit of God speak- 
ing through the sanctified common sense of persons 
whose lives are full of the fruits of the Spirit. 

There is a peril of indolence, the danger of neg- 
lecting the preparation for duty and of leaving 
oneself to the chance of the moment of emergency. 

The danger of fanaticism in its various forms and 
consequences is the great danger which attends the 
fact that the Holy Spirit does accompany the work 
of Christians with special impartations of power. This 
danger comes from ignorance or from one-sided views, 
and is due to the assumption that the Spirit may give 
gifts which are wholly independent of his other gifts, 
whether in the past or in the present. It is presump- 
tuous self-sufficiency to assume that all one’s elders 
have wholly ignored the guidance and teachings of 
the Spirit, and that now a person is entering into 
important truths which other Christians have not the 
grace to recognize. If this belief enters a man’s 
heart and is not accompanied by great searchings of 
mind lest he be in error, there is abundant reason for 
all other persons to believe that the spirit of the man 
is from below and not from above. God sometimes 


218 THE SUPREME LEADER 


sends a man forth with a message which is as a fire 
within his bones, and that man is in the succession 
of the prophets. It is one and the self-same Spirit 
who commissions all the prophets, and no man in 
the succession attempts to abrogate the work of his 
predecessors. He strives to fulfil the work begun in 
the past. 

The real gift of the Spirit ministers not to fanati- 
cism but to sanity. The ordinary operations of the 
Spirit develop sound judgment; extraordinary gifts 
heighten sound judgment, they develop mental poise. 
The one sane mind in the world’s history was that 
mind which had the Spirit without measure. He 
was in the succession of the prophets and built on 
their work. Ifa person who is in the prophetic suc- 
cession yields to the temptation to defy the past 
work of the Spirit, he limits his prophetic usefulness. 

Spiritual maturity comes by life, and by life which 


takes advantage of what previous generations have_ 


achieved. How much could a man hope to achieve, 
how far could he hope to advance in the arts of civil- 
ization who on a desert island has nothing with which 
to work but his two hands? Let no man hope to 
attain spiritual power without building on the labors 
of the men of the Spirit from the days of Moses to 
the present. The Spirit is not the author of chaos. 
It is wilful blindness to assume that the Spirit has not 
already placed in the hands of believers the keys to 
a great.magazine of spiritual energy. It is nothing 


ae. 
sh, aa 


EFFICIENT CHRISTIAN SERVICE 219 


but downright laziness to refuse to learn the use of 
these keys. God demands that men shall conform 
to the laws of spiritual growth and await their own 
maturity. There is needed a development ofa real 
and symmetrical Christian consciousness even to its 
mature form of the church consciousness. No indi- 
vidual in whose spiritual life this development comes 
is open to danger of fanaticism, nor will he under- 
value any gift of the Spirit. 


CHAPTER. ITT 


THE EVIDENCE. OF THE. PRESENCE) OF THE SPIRIT 
IN A HUMAN LIFE ACCORDING TO THE CAPACITY 
AND. NEEDS OF THE INDIVIDUAL 


When a person recognizes any defect in the world, 
when he is uneasy by reason of any maladjustment 
of social or civic relations, or because of any abuses 
in business life, or on account of any wrong-doing 
anywhere, these are evidences of the presence of the 
Spirit stirring in his heart. They are not necessarily 
an evidence of his guidance. The stirrings of the 
Holy Spirit are far different from what may be called 
his real presence in the human soul, as Guide and 
Ruler. 

The one evidence of the ruling presence of the 
Spirit in the disciple is Christlikeness. It is the func- 
tion of the Spirit to bring each person into direct 
companionship with Jesus Christ, the true and nor- 
mal man. The result of this companionship is a 
progressive transformation into his likeness (2 Cor. 
3: 18). 

1. Some operations of the Cosmic Spirit in human 
life are worthy of attention at this point. There isa 
normal action of our so-called natural faculties which 
we perhaps never attain, an ideal toward which we 
constantly strive. 


— 


EVIDENCE OF THE SPIRIT 220 


If we go to an oculist we are told that no perfect 
eye is ever found. The refraction of light and con- 
centration of light are rarely performed in a perfect 
manner by the cornea and crystalline lens. Perhaps 
this is never done perfectly. There are great differ- 
ences in the susceptibility of the retina to the various. 
shades and tints of color. The ancients seem com- 
monly to have noted but few distinctions of color. 
The phenomenon of color-blindness may then have 
been more common than it now is. Itis possible that 
in the future greater sensitiveness to color may be 
developed. Probably there is no person who has 
perfect clearness of vision together with distinct per- 
ception of outlines and, at the same time, sure recog- 
nition of color in fine shades. These deficiencies do 
not hinder us from holding to a practical standard of 
perfect or normal vision. The excellence of one’s 
vision is measured by its conformity to this standard 
which exists in the minds of numberless people who 
have never even thought that they had a standard. 
The working of the Cosmic Spirit may be seen both 
in the physical sense and in the judgment which is 
passed upon that sense. 

The sense of hearing, both as to acuteness and in 
the delicacy of perception of musical harmony, 
likewise illustrates the reality of a recognized ideal 
standard to which nobody attains and to which per- 
sons may only hope to approximate. 

The same facts are evident in those regions of 


222 THE SUPREME LEADER 


capacity which are regarded as more distinctly intel- 
lectual—reasoning—and also in conscience and ener- 
sy of will. In reasoning there are more sources of error 
than there are in the sense of sight. Precipitancy, 
imperfect bases of conclusions, prejudices arising from 
chance associations in life, misconceptions arising 
from the language used in giving form to a thought, 
illusions because of imperfect knowledge of the real- 
ity in any instance, disabilities which arise from one’s 
limitations of knowledge or capacity, these all oper- 
ate to prevent one from attaining exact teath, Ln. 
spite of all these difficulties, some form of the proc- 
ess is recognized as normal, and the mental processes 
of men are judged by that normal process. 

There is a Christian conscience which is recognized 
as normal. Itis never perfectly realized, yet that 
ideal which is never realized is a constant standard. 

A person may show at times a firmness of grasp 
of principle which is recognized as a normal expres- 
sion of personal will. He may choose a plan for a 
course of action, short or long as the need requires. 
The plan itself, the means devised for carrying it out 
and the grip of will with which it is carried out, all 
these show personal qualities to be excellent, or the 
reverse. The plan may be one desirable to ac- 
complish for the sake of others or for the person 
himself; the means may be adapted to the end to be 
accomplished, or only partially adapted ; the person 
may bend all his forces directly to the accomplishment 


EVIDENCE OF THE SPIRIT 223 


of the result, he may waste much force in needless 
efforts, or he may pursue his course with fitful energy. 
We believe that in Jesus Christ was exemplified per- 
fect wisdom, or a perfect command of self, and we esti- 
mate the person according to the nearness with which 
he approaches the ideal of a perfectly wise course 
adopted, of perfectly suitable means for carrying out 
his purpose, and of steady, undeviating, unwasted 
activity in accomplishing results. 

All these qualities are due to the presence of the 
Cosmic Spirit. We expect to find them in perfect 
degree in no person beside Jesus Christ, and we esti- 
mate the degree in which a person has these tokens 
of the presence of the Spirit by his likeness to 
Christ. 

2. The human soul is debarred from the normal 
development due to the Cosmic Spirit directly by the 
effect which sin produces within the soul and indi- 
rectly by the results of sin, as it has affected the 
body. The Redemptive Spirit brings restorative 
action which has for its goal complete likeness to 
Christ. So far as a person gives evidence of this 
likeness, so far does he prove that the Spirit is pres- 
ent, accomplishing his redemptive work. Christ- 
likeness and the presence of the Spirit are insep- 
arable. 

Specific tokens of this Christlikeness are: 

z. Faith toward God the Father, Redeemer and 
Sanctifier. : | 


224 THE SUPREME LEADER 


_ An evident desire to live without sin, and a 
Pee for its mastery, sy penitence when over- 
taken by it. 

_ The fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5: 22, 23), with 
2 a is conjoined an evident desire to make one’s 
life useful to others. 

iv. An unselfish character, freedom from self-seek- 
ing and self-will. 

v. A passion for truth and an dawilkneness. to sac- 
rifice principle for self. 

vt. A passion for righteousness and sympathy with 
Christ in his work for lost men. 

vit. The habitual estimate of life, duty and oppor- 
tunity from the standpoint of Christ, especially in 


connection with the community-life of the Church in 


its work and aims. 

viwt. Candor. 

iw. Sincerity and simplicity of manner, while unc- 
tuousness and artificiality of manner cause the pres- 
ence of the Spirit to be doubted. 

x. Growth, else there is no perceptible life. 

vt. A richness of comfort whatever the circum- 
stances of life. There is a sense that God pervades 
one’s whole life, making all things, small and great, 
to minister to one’s real needs, sanctifying every kind of 
joy and unselfish pleasure, whether in life, art, litera- 
ture, or recreation, and all physical susceptibilities, 
redeeming them all and transforming them into 
their proper ministry. While there is no asceticism, 


ey 


EVIDENCE OF THE SPIRIT 225 


there is no exemption from the principles which are 
normal to true and holy living. There is the most 
complete freedom of the higher, the spiritual life, to 
which the lower, the material life, is subordinated. 

3. The presence of the Charismatic Spirit, giving 
power for service, is to be tested by the same standard. 
of Christlikeness. The fact that a person shows 
Christlike power to make men see and feel the nature 
of sin and of righteousness, and to attract men 
toward righteousness, is unmistakable proof of the 
presence of this Spirit. 

Among the marks of this presence are: 

Clearness of perception respecting all moral 
questions or spiritual issucs; hence an escape from 
ignorance and its evils. 

| Insight into the truths which concern human 
redemption, which may begin from love to Christ, for 
love is a great illuminator. 
. The unmistakable presence of the Holy Spirit 
in a sanctifying power. 

zv. Freedom and hopefulness in Gheewan SErvICe ; 
freedom from the sense of constraint to Service, eet 
dom from fear of men or of consequences to self 
from the service, freedom from anxiety and nervous 
wear in this service. 

v. Skill and wisdom in Christian service, the adop- 
_ tion of the wisest means to secure proper results, and 
the a of unwise and of inopportune means. 

eee ts of effort. 
Devotion in service which cannot but be felt. 


CHAPTER LY. 


WHAT CONDITIONS ARE TO BE FULFILLED IN ORDER 
THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT MAY BECOME OPERATIVE 
IN A HUMAN LIFE ACCORDING TO. THE MEASURE 
OF THE CAPACITY AND: THE ‘NEEDS OF STHAT 
INDIVIDUAL? 


Obedient receptivity, 7. ¢., receiving and following 
the methods of the Holy Spirit as the law of human 
activity. 

1. A person must obey the laws of the Cosmic 
Spirit. No man expects to see external objects with 
his eyes closed, or to see clearly without light, or if 
he has defective eyes, to have satisfactory vision with- 
out artificial aids. These are among the laws of the 
Cosmic Spirit. 

No man may hope to gain any knowledge save by 
the appropriate processes. Fle must apply the prin- 
ciples of deductive logic to the learning of geometry, 
and those of induction to physical science. Should 
he reverse the methods he cannot but fail in both 
modes of seeking knowledge. He must accept the 
principles of logic as the Spirit’s laws for the gaining 
of knowledge. When a man studies psychology in 
order to learn the ways of the Spirit, he is following 
a truly scientific method, and is on the way to the 


CONDITIONS TO BE PURTIEUED os 227 


solution of many a philosophical question. He who 
accepts this principle is developing his natural Capac- 
ities in the normal way, and will be likely to develop 
them to the full range of his powers. 

2. He must obey the laws of the Redemptive 
Spirit. Regeneration comes when one accepts his 
renewing power. The refusal to accept the renewing 
agency of the Spirit is -the sole prevention of this 
work of the Spirit. The slightest readiness to permit 
his operation in the heart is sure to be followed by 
his action. He will always enter the heart that does 
not reject him, and never fails to fill as large a place 
as he is allowed to do. 

The principle holds good of his sanctifying agency, 
Just as a person must seek to learn the methods of 
the Cosmic Spirit in order to develop his natural 
capacities, so he must learn the methods of the Sanc- 
tifying Spirit. There are several conditions. 

(1), Prayer. The Holy Spirit in sanctification 
maintains a fellowship between Christ and the be- 
liever, so that the soul can know Christ well enough 
to become Christlike. It is one law of the Spirit that 
_ Prayer is essential to the maintenance and develop- 
ment of this fellowship. The power to receive illum- 
ination from God requires such a fellowship with God 
as will enable us to understand his heart. Commu- 
nication between two persons is absolutely essential 
for fellowship between them. Without prayer there 
is no fellowship between God and man. 


228 ‘ THE SUPREME LEADER 


bejrsihe establishment of the habit of harboring 
no sin recognized to. be sin. The Holy Spirit will 
not abide with the disobedient heart. He is grieved 
and by his own law he cannot be present except 
when he has the leadership of the heart. If a man 
would progress in sanctification, he must live in no 
known sin, must cling to nothing believed, or even 
feared, to be contrary to God’s will. In fact, where 
there is any doubt, the doubtful thing cannot be held 
without detriment to one’s progress in the divine life. 

(3) The establishment of the habit of prompt per- 
formance of every duty seen to be duty, and this in 
its own proper time. 

(4) The establishment of the habit of viewing 
one’s life and all its concerns from the standpoint of 
God’s redemptive kingdom. This includes the habit 
of estimating all conduct by the mind of Christ. It 
therefore necessitates the constant secking of the 
mind of Christ by the illumination of the Spirit. 
This illumination is to be gained by: 

+ Cultivation of the belief that the Spirit is ready 
to give guidance if he is permitted to do so ; therefore, 
he is to be sought, not as if he were remote, rather 
he is to be regarded as waiting to give what is needed. 

if. Cultivation of the conviction that the soul is so 
constituted that it will rest in the truth and live by 
the truth, and can find rest and life in no other way. 

iii. Prayer. No man need hope to learn the mind 
of the Spirit who does not constantly pray in order to 


me tee ae ae ea 


CONDITIONS TO-.BE FULFILLED 229 


learn, pray that his own spiritual perceptions may 
become sensitive to the indications of the mind of 
God, pray that in particular emergencies his mind | 
may become clear-sighted. 

zv. Positive study of the mind of Christ or of the 
Spirit. The assistance of the Spirit is never intended — 
to supersede one’s own efforts. Just as it is necessary 
to study the operations of the Cosmic Spirit, so it is 
necessary to study the ways of the Redemptive Spirit. 
Prayer is no substitute for study, but it prepares for 
study by bringing persons into a closer relationship 
with God. 

The sources of study are conscience, the written 
word of God, the dealings of God with his people, 
the thought of his truest followers. It may be that 
the experience and knowledge of others, even public 
Opinion, one’s own moods, talents, instincts or tastes 
may be means used by the Spirit for instruction. 
The Spirit cannot contradict himself; no illumination 
coming from the Spirit will contradict what he teaches 
through reason in its full breadth, through radical 
moral convictions, or the clear teaching of the Bible. 

v. In order to receive the illumination of the Spirit 
one must hold every avenue of his nature open for 
the entrance of the divine grace. 

Candor must be cultivated. Lack of candor, un- 
willingness to believe, or to accept something differ- 
ent from what was anticipated or preferred, these vio- 
late the methods of the Spirit, and close the eyes of 


230 THE SUPREME LEADER 


the man’s understanding. We are to be ready to 
accept as truth, or as a duty, what we have not de- 
sired, or have preferred not to accept. In short, we 
are to be divested of every form of self-will, for this 
prevents clear sight. ; 

One must watch soas not to mistake the presence 
of the Spirit, so as to recognize it and mistake noth- 
ing else for it. -It must be remembered that he is 
present in every effort to repel the allurement of sin- 
ful delight, to overcome anger or any other passion. 

vz. All things that may grieve the Spirit must be 
repelled. These are all contrary to the laws of grace, 
they are hostile to the life of redemption. Things 
that grieve the Spirit include: 

Precipitancy of temper, which prevents us from 
waiting for the clear indication of the mind of the 
no YER toa, 

Clinging to what ought to be forsaken. 

Dwelling upon the details of sin with pleasure, 
thinking how pleasant such and such actions would 
be if they were not wrong; this blunts the delicacy of 
spiritual perception. Purity of heart is necessary in 
order to see God. 

Insincerity and artificiality. 

Bitterness toward others, an unforgiving spirit. 

Pride which prevents us from accepting guidance 
through some particular agency. ‘Since all alike 
are promised gifts of the Spirit, we must all be willing 
to learn from one another.” 


CONDITIONS “LO BE FULFILLED PRA | 


Distrust of God’s wisdom or goodness; in short, 
anything whatsoever which mars the closeness of the 
fellowship between God and man. 

(5) Why do men seek guidance and not receive 
it? 

They may lack sincerity. 

They may not comply with the conditions of re- 
ceiving guidance. 

They may refuse to heed the indications which are 
given. 

They may not hold themselves in patience until it 
comes. 

The man who seeks guidance and sees no indica- 
tion that he has it may well supplicate for sanctifying 
grace that his soul may be brought into harmony 
with God sufficiently for him to have the beginnings 
of spiritual discernment.” 

3. The laws of the Charismatic Spirit must be 
learned and obeyed. 

The gift of the Holy Spirit, as it is often termed, 
means any especial efficiency granted to a Christian 
worker. It is God’s gift added to the grace of for- 
giveness, reconciliation and the sanctifying work of 
the Holy Spirit; it enables a man to do more wisely 
and effectively the Christian work which lies before 
_ him, and also to live his life more fully in accord with 
_ God’s will, and to develop in Christlike character 
more rapidly. 

Like the previous gifts this is obtained by obedi- 


232 THE SUPREME LEADER 


ence, by conformity to the mind of the Spirit so far 
as known, so far as a man is able to ascertain his 
mind. The chief conditions of the attainment of this 
eift are: : 

(1) The diligent seeking for a life conformed to the 
mind of Christ. This conformity is the charism of a 
holy life. No better gift of the Spirit exists. Proba- 
bly none is more convincing. Therefore the condi- 
tions of the growth of Christian life are the condi- 
tions of the attainment of this gift, the gift of being 
Christlike, the gift of showing others what it is to be 
Christlike. The lack of attraction toward this gift 
lies in the fact that its results are rarely immediate or 
conspicuous. 

(2) Single-hearted seeking of the welfare of the 
redemptive kingdom of God. There is a great deal 
of seeking for “ power” from the Spirit which does 
not differ morally from the seeking by Simon Magus, 
or the seeking of political power by the selfish politi- 
cian. It is sought in order that the seeker may min- 
ister to his own pride, self-sufficiency, or conspicuous 
position among Christian workers. Men are apt to 
be attracted more by the preeminence which is ac- 
corded to the possessor of the showy gift of persua- 
sive speech than they are by the real value of the 
cift. There is unquestionably a great deal of cant 
respecting ‘power,’ and every young Christian 
worker should carefully guard himself from it, by 
keeping within the bounds of absolute sincerity. He 


bea " j Bait 


ee Be ! 


Le ee ee ee 


CONDITIONS TO BE FULFILLED 233 


must not allow himself to repeat the sayings of others 
as the expression of his own thoughts and feelings, 
unless they are really his own. He should not say ~ 
things merely because he thinks he ought to say 
them, or because it is the fashion to say them. 

(3) Enthusiasm for the work of Christ. This. is 
something which cannot be forced, and ought never 
to be simulated. All direct attempts to attain an en- 
thusiastic temper develop artificiality and cant. The 
enthusiasm which is a condition of especial power 
comes only as a natural growth. The one thing 
which will develop Christian enthusiasm is a single- 
hearted devotion to the will of Christ. This is a 
matter of choice. Enthusiasm cannot but spring up in 
a life wholly devoted to the mind of Jesus Christ. 
Its expression will be governed by the temperament 
of the individual. Some are restrained in its expres- 
sion, others are demonstrative. Every man must be 
natural in the expression of the enthusiasm which he 
_has, neither forcing the expression nor repressing it. 
When natural, enthusiasm is a mighty vehicle of 
power. It imparts a vivid sense of the reality of a 
man’s faith, and of its substantial basis. 

It is conditioned in part by an unquestioning faith 
in the adequacy of the Holy Spirit for all needs. 
Defective faith—doubt—is the reason why many fail 
of this gift. The believer should look for the presence 
of the Holy Spirit in his whole life, treating nothing 
in it as outside the quickening power of the Spirit; 


234 THE SUPREME LEADER 


then with single-hearted enthusiasm he can carry on 
his life-work with the sense of its supreme impor- 
tance. | 

(4) Loyalty to the Triune God, and to his revealed 
Word. In the work of the redemptive kingdom it is 
a condition of the highest power that the Christian 
always treat Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Re- 
deemer of the world and the Sovereign of the 
redemptive kingdom. He must always treat the 
Holy Spirit as the representative of the King, Jesus 
Christ, and rely upon him for all effectiveness in 
service.2 He must treat the Holy Spirit as one with- 
out whose presence he can have no hope of success. 
The Bible, as the record of God’s redemptive revela- 
tion, must have due honor, for it contains the com- 
mission of the Christian, it is the source of his best 
knowledge of his own heart, it is the standard to 
which his teaching must conform, it contains the prin- 
ciples by which he must govern his own life. No 
man who fails in reverence toward God, or toward 
the Word of God, has any right to hope for ane cift 
of power, or even to ask for it. 

4.°Why do men who may reasonably be: thought 
to be used by the Holy Spirit in Christian work dis- 
agree with each other, and even quarrel? 

The answer is that these disagreements arise from 
the imperfections of men, 7. é., from their lack of 
Christlikeness. It is a common error for men to as- 
sume that because God has blessed a man by giving 


oo 


ts 


Fh AR ae BE tS 


ay oat . hee 


CONDITIONS TO BE FULFILLED 235 


him conspicuous’ effectiveness in Christian service, 
the man is thereby made incapable of mistake, fault, 
or sin in anydirection. The Spirit was given to Jesus 
not by measure, but never has he been given in such 
fulness to any believer in Jesus. The conditions 
which one must seek to fulfil, in order to be fit to” 
receive the gift of the Spirit, seem to insure perfec- 
tion. It is an erroneous assumption that when God 
does impart his gift he thereby testifies that the Chris- 
tian has fulfilled all conditions. The gift of power 
is a free grace as much as salvation. The conditions 
on which the Holy Spirit imparts his gifts are a means 
of grace in order to guard the Christian against the 
misuse of the gift. 

Nothing is more certain than that God treats men 
wholly according to his free grace, not according to 
their exact character (Ps. 66: 18-20). Thus he 
must use men who are imperfect instruments, at best, 
for the accomplishment of his holy purposes. This 
is certain, that the more closely a man approaches to 
the fulfilment of the conditions which are the laws of 
the Spirit, the greater power is bestowed upon him. 

Another reason why good men disagree is 
that being finite no man can see the whole truth. 
Each person must view the truth from the point 
which he occupies, hence all cannot see it alike. A 
man may have the grace to believe that what another 
sees may really be the truth and that what he him- 
self sees is truth, although how the two agree is more 


230 THE SUPREME LEADER 


than he can understand. Not all men are willing to 
have this grace. The imperfect sanctification of men. 
often prevents them from yielding to others the same 
liberty which they claim for themselves. It is as 
much an obligation to allow others unfettered action 
in seeking and following the Spirit, as it is for one to 
seek the Spirit for himself. Provided a man shows 
in his life that he is genuinely in earnest in seeking 
truth, and that he is really attempting to fulfil the 
conditions on which the Spirit gives guidance, it is 
the duty of all others to treat him with all Christian 
charity and sympathy. 

5. Why do men seek for power and fail to receive it? 

(1) God puts himself under no obligation to bestow 
specific gifts of power at the desire of the Christian. 
The Spirit is governed by his own will in the allot- 
ment of his gifts.. If the man asks for the gift of 
persuasive speech, while the Spirit is offering him the 
cift of prevailing prayer, the man may think that his 
‘ desire is denied him; but the trouble is that he is 
lacking in spiritual discernment and very possibly he 
is self-willed and wanting in the grace of humility. 

(2) Men fail of power because self-seeking is too 
much mingled with their prayer (James 4: 3). Their 
longing is that they themselves have and handle 
power, rather than that they be used according to the 
wisdom of the Spirit for a redemptive purpose. 

(3) Men may close their natures against the recep- 
tion of the gift they desire by unwillingness to 


ee a ae 


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baie PS, 
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CONDITIONS TO .BE>. FULFILLED 237 


accept all its responsibilities. They may indulge a 
secret unwillingness to conform to some one or more 
of the conditions on which the Spirit may be sought, 
-and_consequently they are not really willing instru- 
ments. They may even be refusing to perform some 
plainly known duty. | 

(4) The failure to receive power may be merely 
temporary. Ifthe Spirit has moved a man to long with | 
all energy to perform some service-in the kingdom, it 
is doubtless the fact that the Spirit is preparing the 
man for some service. It may be that the realization 
is delayed in order to give the man’s longing desire time 
to perform its preparatory mission. It often is the case | 
that the long-deferred fulfilment of desire is the one 
thing needed to fit a person to periorm service. There 
may be immaturity of character, there may be lack 
of spiritual tact for work, or lack of patience, or spir- 
itual discernment may be too slight, conscience may 
be too insufficiently susceptible, or faith too wavering. 

The person who would be greatly useful needs 
much training, but if he holds himself loyal to his 
highest desire, he will surely be used in some way. 
It may seem to him that the door is closed; it may 
be that the door is small and humbling, it may seem 
to enter only into a narrow and tortuous passage, but 
if he will only enter and press forward in loyal 
faith, he will find it opening at last into a field of 
usefulness wonderful enough to content any faith- 
ful soul. 3 


APPENDIX 


NOTE 1,°pace xu. 


The following is a list of the larger number of the books or discus- 
sions on the subject of the Holy Spirit published during the last hun- 
dred years which have come within the reach of the writer. If any 
reader who knows of others would send title, name of author, date 
and place of publication, he would confer a favor on the writer. 

Biblical, historical and doctrinal: Smeaton, Doctrine of the Holy 
Spint, Edinburgh, 1882. Quite helpful. 

Biblical and historical: Kahnis, Die Lehre vom heiligen Geiste, 
1847. Redford, Vox Dei, Cincinnati, 1880. 

Biblical and doctrinal: Lechler, Die biblische Lehre vom heiligen 
Geiste, Giitersloh, 1899. Very suggestive. 

Biblical: Swete’s article Holy Spirit in Hastings’ Dictionary of the 

Bible. Cremer, article Ge7s¢ in Protestantische Real Encyclopidie, 
Ausg. 3, also article mveby.a. In the Biblico-Theological Lexicon. of 


the New Testament. 

Old Testament: Kleinert, zur alttestamentlichen Lehre vom Geiste 
Gottes, Jahrbiicher fiir deutsche Theologie, vol. xii, pp. ff. I know of 
no other discussion of this particular subject of so great value. Lotz, 
Geschichte und Offenbarung im alten Testament, pp. I 59-220. 
Giesebrecht, Berufsbegabung der A. T. Prophetie, 123-159, 1897. 
Konig, Der Offenbarungsbegriff des A. Testaments, vol. i, §§ 11-13, 
Leipzig, 1882. Nordell in Old Testament Student, vol. iv, 433 ff. 
Warfield in Pres. and Ref. Rev., 1895, 665 ff. A.B. Davidson in Ex- 
pository Times, vol. xi, 21 ff. See also the Old Testament Theolo- 
gies of Oehler, Schultz, Dillmann and Riehm. 

New Testament: Gloel, Der heilige Geist in der Heilsverkiindigung 
des Paulus, Halle, 1888. Gunkel, Die Wirkungen des heiligen 
Geistes, G6ttingen, 1888, criticises the previously mentioned treatise 
of Gloel. A new edition is announced. Adamson, The Spirit of 
Power, republished, Edinburgh, 1897, from two articles in vol. vii of 
Expository Times, pp. 440 ff, 487 ff. See also the New Testament 
Theologies of Weiss, Beyschlag, Schmid, Stevens, Nosgen (Geschichte 
der Neutestamentlichen Offenbarung). Stevens, Johannine Theology, 
pp. 189 ff. Bruce, St. Paul’s Conception of Christianity, pp. 242 ff. 
Edinburgh, 1894. 

ffistorical: N6ésgen, Geschichte der Lehre vom heiligen Geiste, 
Giitersloh, 1899. Good so far as it goes. It would have been 
greatly improved if it had taken account of the great current of 


240 APPENDIX 


thought on this subject among English speaking peoples since the year 
1600. Burton, Testimony of the Ante-Nicene Fathers to the Doc- 
trine of the Trinity and of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit, Oxford, 
1831. Swete, History of the Doctrine of the Procession of the Holy 
Spirit, Cambridge, England, 1876. Baur, Lehre von der Dreieinig- 
keit, 3 vols., Tiibingen, 1841-43. Klaiber, Die Lehre der altprotes- 
tantischen Dogmatiker von dem Testimonium Spiritus Sancti, und 
ihre dogmatische Bedeutung, Jahrbiicher fur deutsche Theologie, vol. 
ii, I-54. Simon, Doctrine of Testimonium Spiritus Sancti Internum 
of the Reformers, Bibliotheca Sacra, 1891, pp. 27 ff, 369 ff. See also 
the histories of the Christian Church, and of Christian Doctrine or 
Dogma. 

Doctrinal: Buchanan, On the Holy Spirit, Edinburgh, republished 
in New York, 1847. Candiish, The Work of the Holy Spirit, Edin- 
burgh. Faber, The Ordinary Operations of the Holy Spirit, New 
York, 1814. Jenkyn, The Union of the Holy Spirit and the Church, 
London, republished in Boston, 1846. Kolling, Pneumatologie, 
Giitersloh, 1894. Manning, Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost, 
New York, 1866. Stackpole, The Evidence of Salvation, New York, 
1894. Stowell, The Work of the Spirit, London, 1849. Walker, 
The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Chicago, 1874. Schaff, Die Siinde 
wider den heiligen Geist, Halle, 1841. Moberly, The Administration 
of the Holy Spirit, the Bampton Lectures for 1868.. See the Bamp- 
ton Lectures for 1815, 1818, 1837, 1846, and 1847. Julius Miller, 
Das Verhialtniss zwischen der Wirksamkeit des heiligen Geistes und 
dem Gnadenmittel des géttlichen Wortes in his Dogmatischen 
Abhandlungen, 1870, and in Studien und Kritiken, 1856. See also 
the discussions of the person of the Holy Spirit and of his work in 
the systems of theology. 

Practical: Arthur, The Tongue of Fire, New York, 1856, often 


reprinted. Brown, The Divine Indwelling, N. Y., Chicago, and To- | 


ronto. Cumming, Through the Eternal Spirit, Stirling and London. 
Clark, The Offices of the Holy Spirit, London. Dixon (and others), 
The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit, also The Holy Spirit in 
Life and Service. Evans, Spirit of Holiness, New York. Gordon, 
The Ministry of the Spirit, Philadelphia, 1895. Hare, Mission of the 
Comforter, 1846, often republished. Moule, Veni Creator, London, 
1890. Moody, Secret Power, Chicago, 1881. Parker, The: Paractete, 
London, 1874. Robson, The Holy Spirit the Paraclete, Edinburgh 
and London, 1894. Smith, The Baptism in Fire, Boston, 1883. 
Selby, The Holy Spirit and Christian Privilege, London, 1894. 
Tophel, The Work of the Holy Spirit in Man, *Edinburgh, 1882. 
Wilberforce, University Sermons, third series, 1871. Webb, Pres 
ence and Office of the Holy Spirit, London, 1893. 


ao 


APPENDIX 241 


NOTES <ON STUDY f 


NOTE 1, page 8. 


On the subject of holiness see Cremer, Biblico-Theological Lexi- 
con of the New Testament Greek, article dytos (Cremer is of the 
highest value in the study of any Biblical concept). Dillmann, Alttes- 
tamentliche Theologie, pp. 252-258. Hastings’ Dictionary of the 
Bible, Art. Holiness, the Old Testament portion of which falls short 
of justice to the facts presented by Cremer and Dillmann. See Ency- 
clopzdia Biblica, article Clean. 


NOTE 2, page 9. 
Hast. Dict. Bib. ii, 395. 


NOTE 3, page II. 


Dillmann, A. T. Theologie, 257. See also Kirkpatrick, Doctrine 
of the Prophets, 174 f. 


NoTE 4, page 12. 
Hast. Dict. Bib. ii, gor. 


NOTE 5, page 19. 
Sanders and Kent, Messages of the Earlier Prophets, 160. 


NOTE 6, page 22. 
Kleinert, Jahrb. f. deutsche Theologie, xii, 22. 


NOTE 7, page 20. 


Swete’s sketch of the New Testament development of thought is 
a very fine presentation of the facts, the best of which I know. Hast. 
Dict. Bib. ii, 405 ff. 
Note 8, page 32. 


These passages contain two expressions which are peculiar to 
— Luke, rvediwatos aytov maynoO7vat and TAN ONS TMvebpatos aytov. 
These phrases are discussed in Expository Times, vii, 440 ff, 487 ff, 
with the conclusion that the former expression denotes the accession 
of power given to disciples who were in an emergency, had faith in 
Christ and felt the need of his present power to enable them to give 
suitable and adequate testimony concerning him. The power came 
giving enthusiasm, energy and enlightenment, thus capacitating them 
for effective utterance. The latter phrase denotes the same enlight- 
enment and enthusiasm in a steady flood. See also McGiffert, Apos- 
tolic Age, 71 ff. : 


242 - APPENDIX 


NOTE 9, page 33: 
Edwards on 1 Cor. xii, 2. T. C. Edwards, London, 1885. See also 


Meyer on I Cor. xii. . 
.NOTE 10, page 39. 


Bruce in Expositor, series iv, vol. ix, 81 f; also in his St. Paul’s 

Conception of Christianity, 247. ot 
NOTE II, page 44. 

“ God who raised up Christ by His Spirit on the completion of His 
work, will also by the same Spirit bring life again to the mortal 
bodies of those who are Christ’s. That Spirit ever ‘dwelleth in us,’ 
and the body which He makes His residence cannot have death as 
the end of allits story. The inhabitation of the Spirit of life which 
makes the body a holy thing, works in the body to life.” Salmond, 
Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 554 f. 


NOTE 12, page 53. 
New Testament Theology, ii, 89; Expository Times, vi, 214. 


NOTE 13, page 54. 


Swete gives a fine summary of the teachings of the Old and New 
Testaments respecting the Spirit of God at the close of his article in 


Hast. Dict. Bib., ii, 410 f. 


— 


NOTES ON STUDY Il 


NOTE I, page 60. 


“The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is really an extension, a natural 
if not necessary consequence, of the doctrine of the Incarnation. As 
soon as it came to be clearly realized that the Son of God had walked 
the earth as an individual man among men, it was inevitable that 
there should be recognized a distinction, and such a distinction as in 
human language could only be described as ‘personal’ in the God- 
head. But if there was a twofold distinction, then it was wholly in 
accordance with the body of ideas derived from the Old Testament to 
say also a threefold distinction.” Sanday, Commentary on Romans, 


200. 
NOTE 2, page 60. 


For the history of this discussion see Smeaton, Nosgen, also Har- 
nack, History of Dogma (Transl.) iv, 108 ff. The most impor- 
tant sources are Athanasius, Epp. ad Serapionem ; Basil, de Spiritu 
Sancto, and Epistolz 8, 105, 113, 125, 159 226, 236; Gregory of 
Nyssa, de Spiritu Sancto, de Trinitate and contra Eunomium ; Greg- 


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APPENDIX 243 


ory Nazianzen, Orationes theologicae quinque and Oratio in Penta- 
costen; Cyril of Jerusalem, Homiliae xvi et xvii. See also Epipha- 
nius, Ancorattis 121-125, or cxvii-cxx. 

NOTE 3, page 63. 


Basil, de Spiritu Sancto, chap. 29; often in allusions to the baptis- 
mal formula. 


‘NOTE 4, page 64. 

Moller, Church History (Transl.) ii, 129; Harnack, iv, 129: ff; 
Swete, History of the Doctrine of the Procession of the Holy Spirit, 
Cambridge, 1876; Nosgen, Buch I, Kapp. 3 and 4. 

NOTE 5, page 67. 

Swete, zbzd., 201, Note. 

NoTE 6, page 68. 

History of Protestant Theology (Transl.) i, TQ. 

NOTE 7, page 60. 

Lbid, 1, 25.” 

Nore 8, page 6o. 

Wiig. 1, 25. 

NOTE 9, page 7o. 


Lbid., i, 62; Ullmann, Reformers before the Reformation, vol. ii. 
NOTE 10, page 72. 


Dorner, History of Protestant Theology, i, 122-281; Kostlin, The 
Theology of Luther. Luther on Galatians, esp. chaps. 3 and 4. 
Otto, Die Anschauung vom heiligen Geiste bei Luther, Gottingen, 
1898. A discussion of the teaching of Luther concerning the rela- 
tion of the Spirit and the Word to the new life. Luther's psychol- 
ogy was deficient, but Otto does him much less than justice. 

NOTE II, page 74. 


Institutes of the Christian Religion. First edition published in 
1536, the last edition issued by Calvin was dated 1559. ‘This work 
possibly was reckoned with by the Council of Trent. 


NOTE 12, page 74. 
Quoted by Hagenbach, History of Doctrine, section 262. 
NOTE 13, page 74. 


Institutes, Book i, chap. 13, sect. 17; Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 
on Holy Baptism, sect. xli. 


NOTE 14, page 75, 
Institutes, Book iii, chap. I, sect. 1. 


244 APPENDIX 


NOTE I5, page 75. 

Institutes, Book iii, chap. 2, sect. 3. 
NoTE 16, page 75. 

Institutes, Book iii, chap. 2, sect. 7. 

NOTE 17, page 76. 
Institutes, Book iii, chap. 2, sect. 36. 

NoTeE 18, page 77. 
Institutes, Book i, chaps. 7 and 8. 

NOTE 19, page 80. 
Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, vol. ili. 

NOTE 20, page 82. 
Tbid., pp. 93 ff. 

NOTE 21, page 84. 


Jahrbiicher fir Deutsche Theologie, ii, 1-54. Bibliotheca Sacra, 
1891, pp. 27 ff and 3609 ff. 

NOTE 22, page 85. 

Born 1648, died 1713. Examen theologicum acroamaticum uni- 
versam theologiam theticopolemicam complectens, 1680. Third edi- 
tion 1722, here quoted. Prolegomenon iii, de Sacra Scriptura, ques- 
tiones 31, 32. The passage here given is partially cited in the two 
reviews named in note 21, and in one place they concur in incorrect 
citation. 

NOTE 23, page QI. 

Dorner, History of Protestant Theology, i; E3Y, 

NOTE 24, page QI. 


Kurtz, Church History, section 124-4. Moller, History of the 
Christian Church, ili, 36 f, 61-70. 
NOTE 25, page 93: 


IDjpwpa 70 Mvevpatixdv, or a Being Filled with the Holy 
Spirit, 1670. Republished by James Nichol, Edinburgh, 1867. 


Nore 26, page 96. 


Concerning the Holy Spirit. This is the most comprehensive 
work on the subject ever published. His great folio volume enti- 
tled, “A Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit,” was published in 
1674. It was but a portion of the work projected by the author. It 


ae 


APPENDIX Z2A5 


was continued by additions published in 1677, 1678, 1682, and, after 
his death, in 1693. All these parts combined together did not com- 
plete the original design. Dr. Owen’s purpose was evidently to cor- 
rect errors on the part of Socinians, Quakers, and Roman Catholics. 
The correction of these three classes of errors would perforce com- 
pel asymmetrical development of positive doctrine. 


NOTE 27, page 97. 


Born 1615, died 1691. His voluminous Practical Works are pub- 
lished in an edition of twenty-three volumes. 


NOTE 28, page 08. 
Born 1630, died 1705. Living Temple, Part ii, chap. 9. 


NOTE 29, page 99, 
John Hunt, History of Religious Thought in England, iii, 397. 


NOTE 30, page Ioo. 


Practical Works, xx, 49 f. See also pp. 136f, 146f, and xxi, 219- 
239 1X; 53-59. 
NOTE 31, page Iol. 


IDyjpwpa 0 Iyevpatexoy P- 449. 


NOTE 32, page 102. 
Fifth head of doctrine, articles ix, x. 


ix. “ Of this preservation of the elect to salvation, and of their per- 
severance in the faith, true believers for themselves may and do ob- 
tain assurance according to the measure of their faith, whereby they 
arrive at the certain persuasion that they ever will continue true and 
living members of the Church, and that they experience forgiveness 
of sins, and will at last inherit eternal life. 

x. “This assurance, however, is not produced by any peculiar rev- 
elation contrary to, or independent of, the Word of God, but springs 
from faith in God’s promises, which he has most abundantly revealed 
in his Word for our comfort; from the testimony of the Holy Spirit 
witnessing with our spirit, that we are children and heirs of God 
(Rom. 8:16); and, lastly, from the serious and holy desire to pre- 
serve a good conscience, and to perform good works. And if the 
elect of God were deprived of this solid comfort, that they. shall 
finally obtain the victory, and of this infallible pledge or earnest of 
eternal glory, they would be of all men most miserable.” Schaff, 
Creeds of Christendom, iii, 594. 


NOTE 33, page Ioz. 


Chapter xviii. “I. Although hypocrites and other unregenerate 
men may vainly deceive themselves with false- hopes and carnal pre- 


246 APPENDIX 


sumptions of being in the favor of God and estate of salvation, which 
hope of theirs shall perish; yet such as truly believe in the Lord 
Jesus, and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good con- 
science before him, may in this life be certainly assured that they are 
in a state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, 
which hope shall never make them ashamed. 

“II. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persua- 
sion, grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of 
faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the 
inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are 
made, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our 
-spirits that we are the children of God, which Spirit is the earnest 
of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption. 

“III. This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence 
of faith, but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many 
difficulties before he be partaker of it: yet, being enabled by the 
Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may 
without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary means 
attain thereunto. And-therefore it is the duty of every one to give 
all diligence to make his calling and election sure; that thereby his 
heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love 
and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the 
duties of obedience, the préper fruits of this assurance, so far is it 
from inclining men to looseness. 

“TV. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation 
divers way shaken, diminished and intermitted, as, by negligence in 
preserving of it; by falling into some special sin which woundeth the 
conscience, and grieveth the Spirit; by some sudden and vehement 
temptation, by God’s withdrawing the light of his countenance, and 
suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no 
light ; yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and 
life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of 
heart and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the 
Spirit, this assurance may in due time be revived, and by the which 
in the meantime, they are supported from utter despair.” Schaff, 
Creeds of Christendom, iii, 637 ff. 


NOTE 34, page I02. 


“Such as truly believe in Christ, and endeavor to walk in all good 
conscience before him, may, without extraordinary revelation, by 
faith grounded upon the truth of God’s promises, and by the Spirit 
enabling them to discern in themselves those graces to which the 
promises of life are made, and bearing witness with their spirits that 
they are the children of God, be infallibly assured that they are in a 
state of grace, and shall persevere therein unto salvation.” 


NOTE 35, page 103. 


Wesley’s Works, v. 166, in a sermon entitled Circumcision of the 
Spirit. 


Wellr aye, ely ot ei 


cS 


Lae ae ae Pe eee 


APPENDIX 247 


NOTE 36, page 103. 
Life of Wesley, i, 180. 
NOTE 37, page I04. 


Wesley’s Works, v, 92 ff, sermon on Rom. 8: 16. After referring 
tort John. 23,5, 29; 3: 14, 18, 24; 4: 13,.as naming the marks of 
the children of God he says. .(p. 94 ff). 

“V. But how does it appear that we have these marks? This isa 
question which still remains. How does it appear, that we do love 
God and our neighbor? And that wekeep the commandments? Ob- 
serve, that the meaning of the question is, How does it appear to 
ourselves (not to others)? I would ask him then that proposes this 
question, How does it appear to you, that you are alive? And that 
you are now in ease, and not in pain? Are you not immediately 
conscious of it? By the same immediate consciousness you will 
know, if your soul is alive to God; if you are saved from the pain of 
proud wrath, and have the ease of a meek and quiet spirit. By the 
same means you Cannot but perceive, if you love, rejoice and delight 
in God. Bythe same, you must be directly assured, if you love your 
neighbor as yourself; if you are kindly affectioned to all mankind, and 
full of gentleness and long suffering. And withregard to the outward 
mark of the children of God, which is, according to St. John, the keep- 
ing hiscommandments, you undoubtedly know in your own breast, if, 
by the grace of God, it belongs to you. Your conscienceinforms you, 
from day to day, if you do not take the name of God within your lips, 
unless with seriousness and devotion, with reverence and godly fear; 
if you remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; if you honor your 
father and mother ; if you do to all as you would they should do unto 
you; if you possess your body in sanctification and honor; and if 
whether you eat or drink, you are temperate therein, and do all to 
the glory of God. 

“VI. Now this is properly the ‘testimony of our own spirit ;’ even 
the testimony of our own conscience, that God hath given us to be 
holy of heart, and holy in outward conversation. It is a conscious- 
ness of “6ur having received, in and by the Spirit of Adoption, the 
tempers mentioned in the word of God, as belonging to his adopted 
children ; even, a loving heart toward God, and toward all mankind, 
hanging, with childlike confidence, on God our Father, desiring 
nothing but him, casting all our care upon him, and embracing every 
child of man, with earnest, tender affection; so as to be ready to lay 
down our life for our brother, as Christ laid down his life for us; a 
consciousness, that we are inwardly conformed, by the Spirit of God, 
to the image of his Son, and that we walk before him in justice, 
mercy, and truth, doing the things which are pleasing in his sight. 

“VII. But what is that testimony of God’s Spirit, which is superadded 
to and conjoined with this? How does he ‘bear witness with our 
spirit that we are the children of God’? It is hard to find words in 
the language of men to explain ‘the deep things of God.’ Indeed, 


248 APPENDIX 


there are none that will adequately express, what the children of God 
experience. But perhaps one might say (desiring any who are taught 
of God, to correct, to soften, or strengthen the expression), the tes- 
timony of the Spirit is an inward impression on the soul, whereby 
the Spirit of God directly ‘witnesses to my spirit, that I am a child 
of God’; that Jesus Christ hath loved me, and given himself for me ; 
pag at all my sins are blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to 
God. 

“VIII. That this ‘testimony of the Spirit of God’ must needs, in the 
very nature of things, be antecedent to the ‘testimony of our own 
spirit,’ may appear from this single consideration. We must be holy 
of heart, and holy in life, before we can be conscious that we are so; 
before we can have ‘the testimony of our spirit’ that we are inwardly 
and outwardly holy. But we must love God before we can be holy 
at all; this being the root of all holiness. Now we cannot love God, 
till we know that he loves us. ‘We love him, because he first loved 
us.’ And we cannot know his pardoning love to us, till his Spirit 
witnesses it to our spirit. Since, therefore, this ‘testimony of his 
Spirit’ must precede the love of God and all holiness, of consequence 
it must precede our inward consciousness thereof, or, the ‘testimony 
of our spirit’ concerning them. 

“TX. Then, and not till then, when the Spirit of God beareth that 
witness to our spirit, ‘God hath loved thee, and given his own Son to 
be the propitiation for thy sins; the Son of God hath loved thee, and 
hath washed thee from thy sins in his blood’; ‘we love God because 
he first loved us,’ and for his sake we love our brother also. And of 
this we cannot but be conscious to ourselves; we ‘know the things 
that are freely given to us of God.’ We know that we love God and 
keep his commandments. And ‘hereby also we know that we are of 
God.’ This is that testimony of our own spirit; which, so long as we 
continue to love God and keep his commandments, continues joined 
with the testimony of God’s Spirit, ‘that we are the children of 
Os RE re a 

“XII. The manner how the divine testimony is manifested to the 
heart, I do not take upon me to explain. Such knowledge is too won- 
derful and excellent for me; I cannot attain unto it. The wind 
bloweth: and I hear the sound thereof. But I cannot tell ‘how it 
cometh, or whither it goeth.”. As no one knoweth the things of a 
man, save the spirit of a man that is in him; so the manner of the 
things of God knoweth no one, save the Spirit of God.” 


NOTE 38, page 104. 
Lbid., page 110. 
; NOTE 39, page 104. 


Treatise on the Religious Affections. 1746. Edward’s Works, 
four volume edition, vol. iii, 87 ff; ten volume edition, vol. v, 122 ff. 


ie 


APPENDIX 249 


NOTE 40, page 108. 


Christian scholarship at the present time accords with Wesley 
‘*Two voices.are distinctly heard; one we know to be that of the 
Holy Spirit; the other is the voice of our own consciousness.” San- 
day, Romans, p. 201 f. Yo the same effect Weiss, New Testament 
Theology (Transl.), i, 477. So apparently Beyschlag, New Testa- 
ment Theology, ii, 201 ff. Dorner, System of Christian Theology, 
iv, 197, 231. On page 71 Dorner criticises Ritschl for saying that 
“the testimony of the Holy Spirit is a piece of medizval piety,” by 
calling attention to the fact that “the very characteristic of medizval 
piety is a denial of the divine assurance of salvation in the heart. of 
the Christian.’’ 


NOTE 41, page IIo. 


Christliche Glaube (Ed. 1), sect. 190 as given in American Biblical 
Repository, 1835, April and July. Translation and discussion by 
Moses Stuart of an essay published in Theologische Zeitschrift, 
1822. See, also, Schleiermacher, Christliche Glaube, sects. 170-172. 


NOTE 42, page IIo. 


Dorner, System of Christian Doctrine, i, 4o1. Julius Miiller, “The 
Athanasian doctrine is essentially right and scriptural.” American 
Presbyterian and Theological Review, 1865, p. 350. 


NOTE 43, page III. 


“Der Geist Gottes ist die Erkenntniss, welche Gott von sich selbst, 
als von seinem Selbstzweck hat. Heiliger Geist bezeichnet im Neuen 
Testament den Geist Gottes, sofern er der Grund der Gotteserkennt- 
niss und des specifischen religids-sittlichen Lebens in der christlichen 
Gemeinde ist (S. 260). Da dieselbe ihre bewusste Bestimmung in 
der Verwirklichung des Reiches Gottes als des gottlichen Selbst- 
zweckes hat, so ist es folgerecht, dass die practische Erkenntniss 
Gottes in der von Gott abhangigen Gemeinde identisch ist mit der 
Erkenntniss, welche Gott von sich selbst hat, ebenso wie die Liebe 
Gottes darin vollendet ist, dass in der Gemeinde die Liebe gegen die 
Briider geiibt wird.” Ritschl, Christliche Lehre von der Rechtfert- 
igung und Verséhnung, iii, 444. Ed. 4, 1895. 

See, also, Garvie, The Ritschlian Theology, p. 337 ff, where he trans- 
lates a series of citations from Ritschl’s work cited above, pp. 506, 
567, 570, 571, 572, 573, “into the following propositions: (1) The 
Spirit of God is God’s knowledge of Himself. (2) As God is fully 
revealed in Christ, the Christian community shares God’s knowledge 
of Himself, even His Spirit. (3) This Spirit is in the Christian com- 
munity not only as kzowledge, but also as the motive of action directed 
to the realization of the kingdom of God; or, putting it in another 
form, the w7// as well as the md of God is in the community. (4) 
The individual Christian participates in this £owledge, and experi- 
ences this motive, that is, possesses the Spirit who belongs to the 


250 APPENDIX 


community. (5) But this possession is his only in the community, and 
cannot be claimed by him apart from it. (6) The process by which 
the individual becomes a member of the community, and so claims for 
himself its knowledge and its motive, is hidden from us. ‘The last 
proposition is of special importance as it is a distinct recognition .of 
the fact that there is more in the individual religious experience than 
has been stated in the preceding propositions.” 

The most important passage for our information which is cited from 
Ritschl by Garvie, p. 338 f, is as follows: “ The Spirit of God, or the 
Holy Spirit, who in reference to God Himself is the knowledge 
which God has of Himself, is at the same time an attribute 
of the Christian community, because the same in accordance 
with the completed revelation of God through Christ has that 
knowledge of Godand_ His counsel toward men in the world which 
corresponds with God’s self-knowledge. As the power of the com- 
mon exhaustive knowledge of God belonging to believers in Christ, 
the Holy Spirit is at the same time the motive of the life of all 
Christians, which as such is necessarily directed to the common aim 
of the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 2: 10-12; Rom. 8: 2-4; Gal. 5: 
22-26). When accordingly, in accordance with this representation 
of Paul the state of regeneration or of the new life is in the doctrine 
of the Reformation put in the closest relation with the Holy Spirit, 
then that is not to be so understood as that each individual is changed 
by the specific power of God in the form of a power of nature, 
but that he is moved to penitence and humility as to moral activity 
in the service of the kingdom of God by the confidence, common to 
all Christians, in God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For 
this reason it is forbidden that any one should assert his relation to 
the Holy Spirit by an observation of himself in which he should iso- 
late himself from all others.” 

See, also, Nosgen, Geschichte, p. 349 ff. Ecke, Die theologische 
Schule Albrecht Ritschls, 292-302. Kiigelgen, Die Dogmatik Al- 
brecht Ritschls, p. 103 ff. 


NOTE 44, page III. 


Kaftan teaches an economical Trinity and holds that the Son and 
Spirit have been eternally Son and Spirit; this teaching is very far 
removed from the positions of Schleiermacher and Ritschl. Das 
Wesen der christliche Religion, 386-392. Dogmatik, sect. 21-4, 5, 
pp. 220-225. Comp. sect. 19-4, 5, pp- 195, 197, and sect. 20, pp. 197-200. 

See, also, Garvie, as note 43, pp. 388 and 345-349. Page 345, 
Garvie quotes Herrmann: “A Holy Spirit that should be nothing else 
than the spiritual life of the community would certainly not be the 
Holy Spirit of the New Testament. This Holy Spirit the believer 
has not before his eyes when he presents himself only an earthly 
magnitude. The Christian, who becomes conscious of the Holy 
Spirit, is under the impression of a power which is fully raised above 
earthly capacity.” 


RNa aetinse- gid einsins's, 


A geo teal 


Pei 


ai ee ene 


-¥ 


ade 


APPENDIX , 25 


NOTE 45, page IIt. 


One may well hesitate to make an unqualified statement on a sub- 
ject respecting which controversy has been so strenuous. The fact 
that Hegel made his idea of the Absolute centre in intellection rather 
than in volition hindered a clear idea of personality of the Absolute, 
even if he held any view of personality ; and the Philosophy of Re- 
ligion does not encourage one to believe that he did. See Philoso- 
phie der Religion, Dritter Theil, Die Absolute Religion; Transla- 
tion, London, 1895, vol. ii, 327-358; iii, 1-151. This translation is 
from the second edition of the Philosophie, published in 1840; also, 
a translation of Dritter Theil is to be found in the Journal of Spec- 
ulative Philosophy, vol. xv, 9 ff, 132 ff, 395 ff, xvi, 52 ff, 171 ff, 258 ff, 
343 ff. Some expressions respecting the relation of the Absolute to 
creation which are quoted by writers (as in Seth, Hegelianism and 
Personality) are not in the second edition. 


NOTE 46, page I12. 
As in the case of Dorner, System of Christian Doctrine, i, pp- 
412-465. 


NOTE 47, page 112. 


Liebner, Christliche Dogmatik, Christologie, 1849, pp. 233 ff, where 
are to be found citations from Richard of St. Victor. Richard of 
St. Victor, Migne edition, pp. 923 ff. Sartorius, Doctrine of Divine 
Love, pp. 3-22. 


NOTE 48, page 113. 


“We are spirits, persons and causes; therefore, we know God to 
be a personal Spirit and first cause. But we are no less essentially 
personal beings, and to us all life and character, intellectual, moral 
_ or practical, is conceivable only under social conditions. A unitarian, 
-one-personed God might possibly have existed, and if revealed as such 
it would have been our duty to have acknowledged his lordship. But, 
nevertheless, he would have always remained utterly inconceivable to 
us — one lone, fellowless, conscious being; subject without object ; 
“conscious person without environment; righteous being without fel- 
lowship or moral relation or sphere of right action. Where would 
__there be to him a sphere of love, truth, trust; of sympathetic feeling? 
Before creation, eternal darkness; after creation, only an endless 
game of solitaire, with worlds for pawns. But the Scriptures declare 
that love is not only a possibility to God or an occasional mood, but 
his very essence. If love be of the essence of God, he must always 
love; and, being eternal, he must have possessed an eternal object of 
love; and being infinite, he must have eternally possessed an infinite ob- 
jectof love. This, of course, the eternal Persons find mutually in each 
other. Nothing but this gives us a God and a Father whose nature 
we can comprehend and with whom we can sympathize. A God es- 


as2 APPENDIX 


sentially active —and active in the forms of infinite intelligence and 
righteousness and love —can be found nowhere except in the mutual 
society of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. 

“The least rational and moral of all theistic systems is that of a 
bare, bald unitarianism. ‘The least intelligent and spiritual of all 
heretical perversions of catholic truth is the pale fallacy which sub- 
stitutes the phenomenal and superficial distinctions of a modal trinity 
in the place of the three self-conscious, loving, counseling Persons, 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, eternally one, yet eternally several and 
threefold. ‘The most rational, illuminated, genial, and spiritually 
fruitful conception of God known among men is that conveyed by his 
self-revelation in the actual history of redemption as three Persons 
eternally loving and thinking and acting in the unity of the one eternal 
Godhead.” A. A: Hodge, Popular Lectures on Theological Themes, 
pp. 127 f. 

Lechler, Die biblische Lehre vom heiligen Geiste, 301 ff. Lechler 
finds a logical difficulty in the Trinity, in the subordination of the Son 
to the Father, and of the Holy Spirit to both Father and Son. This 
difficulty he would solve by removing the idea of subordination 
from the earthly conception of rank and gradation of being to that of 
voluntary self-surrender to each other. An essential element of per- 
fect love is complete self-surrender, and love without self-surrender 
is notlove. Lechlerfindsin Scripture evidence of such self-surrender 
of the Father tothe Son. He holds that the pre-temporal and inner 
movements of the living Deity make each of the three first by turns. 

“The idea of love of God to his Spirit is not according to the mode 
of Biblical speech. The Spirit is rather that one in whom the recip- 
rocal love of the Father and the Son, and the love of God to himself 
finally rests. For what should God love [before time] if he loves not 
himself? But yet more surely is the Spirit the bearer of those attri- 
butes of God from which his self-surrender flows. And since he is 
the apostle and representative of the Son he also has a share in that 
which refers to the Son and to his work. 

‘‘We shall be able, now that we bring our discussion to a close, 
unhesitatingly to lay down the proposition: Self-surrender, or—let it 
be in what sénse it will—self-subordination to one another is intrinsi- 
cally essential to the divine persons in their trinitarian unity. For 
self-surrender is love, and the triune God is love as such [self-surren- 
der]. But it is, accordingly, clearly laid down that the concept of 
subordination as of a free act of love constitutes the heart not only of 
the self-revelation of God in the redemptive economy, but also of the 
pre-temporal, inner, eternal deity in itself. Since this element of eternity 
pertains to the idea of God toevery member of the most holy Trinity, 
always in its proportion, but not simply figuratively and as a trans- 
ference of human categories to the eternal God, but essentially ; and 
since further it is clear that this subordination with the Spirit as with 
the Son also, eternally vanishes again in their perfect unity of being 
and equality with the Father; so is the shadow lighted which other- 
wise would have remained just as indelibly on the image of the Holy 
Spirit as on that of the only begotten Son.” 


>. 


gis 


APPENDIX 253 


In this connection it would be useful to read Observations concern- 
ing the Scripture Giconomy of the Trinity and the Covenant of 
Redemption, by Jonathan Edwards, New York, 1880. 

NoTE 49, Page 114. 

Julius Miiller, Lehre von Siinde, ii, 154-180. Christian Doctrine 
of Sin, ii, 113-133. 

NOTE 50, page I14. 


Swete, History of the Doctrine of the Procession of the Holy 
Spirit, 201 f. 


NOTE 51, page 116. 
Minutes of the General Assembly, 1891, 28 ff; 1892, 132 ff. 


NOTES» ON STUDY. . III 


NOTE I, page 124. 


The Master Idea, Bridgman, Boston, 1899. The first half of this 
volume is devoted to a full and clear exposition of the agency of God 
in the so-called laws of nature. 


NOTE 2, page 133. 
Stearns, Present Day Theology, 111. 
NOTH 3, page 153. 


Stearns, Evidence of Christian Experience. My indebtedness to 
this volume and still more to its author, my lamented colleague, is 
greater than can be adequately expressed. 


NOTE 4, page 158. 
Fleming’s Vocabulary of Philosophy, article Consciousness. 
NOTE 5, page 159. 
Century Dictionary, article Consciousness, 4. 
NOTE 6, pages 162, 174. 
Ladd, Doctrine of Sacred Scripture, ii, 4 ff. 
NOTE 7, page 163. 


Century Dictionary, article Sentiment. 


254 APPENDIX 


NoTE 8, page 166. 


Rooke, Inspiration and other Lectures, pp. 144 f. See, also, Wilde- 
boer, Origin of the Old Testament Canon, pp. 154 ff. 


NOTE 9, page 167. 


This principle applies to the study of the Scripture. There is 
doubtless reason for regarding it as applying to the origin much of 
the historical portion of the Bible. 


NOTE Io, page 183. 


Shairp, Aspects of Poetry, pp. 131-135. 


NoTE II, page IgI. 
Milton’s Areopagitica. 


NOTE 12, page 202. 


Dr. Samuel Harris, God Creator ‘and Lord of All, philosophical 
utility of the doctrine of the Trinity, vol. i, pp. 341-365; practical 
utility of the doctrine, zdd., pp 366-407. 


NOTFES.ON STUDY: IV 


NOTE I, page 212. 
Xenophon, Memorabilia, Book I, 1, 7. 


NOTE 2, page 231. 


“When I see a person hasty and violent, harsh and highminded, 
careless of what others feel, and disdainful of what they think; 
when I see sucha one proceeding to inquire into religious subjects, I 
am sure beforehand he cannot go right — he will not be led into all 
the truth —it is contrary to the nature of things, and the experience 
of the world, that he should find what he is seeking. I should say 
the same were he seeking to find out what to believe or do in any 
other matter not religious, but especially in any such important and 
solemn inquiry; for the fear of the Lord (humbleness, teachableness, 
reverence toward Him) is the very deginning of wisdom, as Solomon 
tells us; it leads us to think over things modestly and honestly, to ex- 
amine patiently, to bear doubt and uncertainty, to wait perseveringly 
for an increase of light, to be slow to speak, and to be deliberate in 
deciding.” John Henry Newman, quoted from Contemporary Review, 
May, 1884, p. OSI. 


Eh oe ET SERS Ae et oe IN eR te eee Fe ee ae Raa en NORE eS ee ay e. 


Ee ee ee ee ee en ee eT ee ™ ay 


APPENDIX 255 


NOTE 3, page 234. 


“The man who has learned to trust Christ for everything personal 
must learn to trust Him, too, for all connected with service. To be 
devoted to Christ is to be filled with the Spirit and to have the power 
of the Spirit. None of the Spirit’s power is wasted when your whole 

being rings harmony with His as to Christ; it overflows. But the Spirit 

will not let the power out of His own hands; He must fill and rule 
you, that it may be used only for Christ. So it is vain to think the 
power is other than a gift of the moment to the faith of the occasion, 
though it may be held every moment. The faith which lovingly lays 
hold on the Lord as its perfect strength and its only hope in all 
Christian service receives the power of the Spirit to meet the need 
which drew it out.” Thomas Adamson, in Expository Times, vol. 
vil, 491, republished in Vhe Spirit of Power, 84f, with a change of 
“your whole being” to “ our whole being,” and from “rule you” to 
“rule us.” 


hs te 


s 


3 
t 
\ 


INDEX 


—__. 


Acquiescence, a mode of declar- 
ing the truth, 168 ; how reached, 


174; slowly reached on great 


subjects, 170. 

Adamson, 255. 

Anabaptists, attitude toward Re- 
‘formers, 90; defect and peril of 
their teaching, ot. 

Ante-Nicene doctrine of the Spir- 
it, 58£; why unscientific, 59. 

Athanasius, xii, 6of. 

Augustine, 77, 112. 

Basil, 61, 63. 7 

Baxter, Richard, 97; on the wit- 
ness of the Spirit, roo. 

Benignity, a fruit of the Spirit, 140. 

Beyschlag, 53, 240. 

Bible, and the Holy Spirit, 179 ff ; 
a literature, 183; quality as lit- 
erature, 184f; originated in life 
molded by the Holy Spirit, 179; 
adapted to the time of its pro- 
duction and to all time, 185 f; 
needs an interpreter, 182 ff > in- 

- terpreted by the Holy Spirit, 
147, 183; and by him alone, 
181, 186; teaches the mind of 
the Spirit, 79; harmonious with 
the Christian consciousness, the 
sole external authority respect- 

. ing salvation and not to be 
superseded, 180. 


Biblical passages: 


Geni 1 y2 13, 14 
6.3 Rs 
Hx 28 $3 15 
Jud. 3: Io, 17 
6 : 34, 18 
Psa.. 51; 10-12, 20 
Tse. Wo 19 
48 : 16, 1S 
63:9, Io, 21 
Whies 323, 18 
Wisd. of Solomon, 7: 22-27. 2 
Mat. 16:17, 172 
28 : 10, . SI 
John 6: 45, L745 
TE AG T41 
7 * 37-39, aS 
16:7-14, 325 35 
Rom. 8 : 16, E53 ff 
I Cor. xii, 53 
P2Ne, 172 
ZC OF S131, @ f 
2 Retna 320,21, E71, 186 


Body, to be redeemed by the 
Spirit, 43. 

Bonn Conference of 1875, r14f. 

Calvin, teachings respecting the 
Holy Spirit, 74-80; a criticism 
of, 76; recognized the witness 


of the Spirit, ror. 
Candor, essential far illumination, 


22, 
° 


258 


Canon, O. T., formation of, 164 ff; 
never fully closed, 166f, yet 
practically settled, 170. 

Carlstadt, 90 f. 

Charisms, purpose of, 32, 34; of 
service, 31-38 ; often improperly 
estimated, 39, 213 ff; of redemp- 
tion, 39-44. 

Christian consciousness, develop- 
ment of, 157-164; formed by 
the Holy Spirit, 141, 146, 161 ; 
a definition, 141, 161 f; general, 
not individual, 162; how devel- 
oped, 162 f; has a historic unity, 
162; may be modified, 160; 
slowly learned, 170; shows the 
mind of the Spirit, 160; how it 
testifies, 167 ff. 

Christian life needed in order to 
gain truth about the Spirit, xi, 
71, TOL, 1004; 

Christian work, ineffective with- 
out the Spirit, 205 f. 

Christlikeness, the one evidence 
of the presence of the Spirit, 
220. 

Church, and the Kingdom of 
God, 188; and the Holy Spirit, 
30f, 189-195. Nature of, 189; 
opposed to ecclesiasticism, an 
organism, 191; how it origi- 
nated, 190; how dissensions 
arise, 191 f; has the Spirit as 
its sole life, 189, and its soul, 
192, and heart, 193, and sole 
leader, 194, 37, who molds the 
polity, no one form of which is 
adequate, 194. Carries on the 
redemptive work of Christ, 193, 


INDEX 


otherwise has no existence, 195 ; 
may not fix the Canon, 77. 


Church consciousness, 192 f; due 


to the Spirit who harmonizes 
individual and collective life, 
194 f, 161; opposed to. eccle- 
siasticism and individualism 
alike, 193. 

Communion of the Holy Spirit, 54. 

Conscience, function in illumina- 
tion, 149; a Godward faculty 
of perception, 157. 

Consciousness, what it is and in- 

volves, 158; general, moral, 

religious, and Christian, their 
nature and how they originate, 

rho f. Gne church, 292 i; 

Constantinople, Council of, 61 f. 

Controversy, hinders the attain- 

_ment of truth, 177 f. 

Conversion, Biblical designations, 
131; modes in which it comes 
to pass, 135 ff; source of power 
for, 129, 136. 

Creeds, Apostles’, 60; of Dort, 
on Witness of the Spirit, 101 f, 
24%; Nicéne, 62; of the Refor-< 
mation, Sof, silent as to the 
Witness of the Spirit, ror. 

Council, a universal, impractic- 
able, 167. 

Death, Biblical idea of, 44. 
Deism, excluded by the O. T. 
idea of the Spirit of God, 16. 
Dillmann, the divine holiness in 

Cael Bas 

Dorner, 68, 249. 

Dwight, Dr. Timothy, on 2 Cor. 
132124 ,c p05 ore: 


iY 


INDEX 


Abvasses, 29, 44. 

Kcclesiasticism, mischief of, 191, 
LOSE 

Edwards, Jonathan, 104. 

Enthusiasm, necessary for Christ’s 
work, 233. 

“Enthusiasm,” origin of, 89; op- 
posed by Luther and Calvin, 
90; dreaded by Protestant the- 
ologians, 88; evils of, 89-92. 

“ Enthusiasts,” doctrine of, 84. 

Experience, gives sense of reality, 
of individuals corrected by that 
of mefi-in general, 123; of 
Christians necessary for knowl- 
edge of the Holy Spirit, 55. 

Faith, in the sufficiency of the 
Spirit, 233; justification by, 83; 
Luther’s doctrine of, 72. 

_Fanaticism, origin of, 89; danger 
11,217. 

Fidelity, a fruit of the Spirit, r4o. 

Figurative language, its value, 131. 

Filioque, 66, in Protestant creeds, 
OOuy | 

Forbearance, a fruit of the Spirit, 
140. 

Formula of Concord, 82-84. ° 
Frnits of the Spirit, 41, 140 fs 
chiefly rooted in the will, 141. 
God, reveals himself as threefold, 

196; as love, the significance 
for the Trinity, 197 ff; as abso- 
lute, relation to the Trinity, 
113 f, 197 ff. The Father, rela- 
tion to the Spirit, 49, 51, to the 
Christian life, 52 f. The Son, 
and the Christian life, 52£; and 

the Spirit, 49 ff. 


) 


OY 


Goodwin, John, 92, 95; value of 
his writings, xii, 95, 109; con- 
cerning the Witness of the 
Spirit, 100 f. 

Greek Church and the Filioque, 
67; religious life of, 68. 

Gregories, the, 61. 

Guidance, of Christians, 31; -a 
reality, 151; often presumptu- 
ously claimed, 152; the condi- 
tions of, 178, 226-237; means 
or modes of, 181, 209-210; 
why men do not receive his 
guidance, 231 ; why he does not 
secure against error, 234 ff. 

Hegel and the Trinity, r11f, 251. 

Hodge, Dr. A. A., respecting the 
Trinity, 202, 252. 

Holiness, the Biblical idea of, 8- 
12; physical basis of the idea 
unknown, 8f; religious idea 
first cleanliness, then dedica- 
tion, 9; of Jehovah, 9-11, ma- 
ture conception of, 10-12, 23 f; 
it unifies the three O. T. con- 
ceptions of the Spirit of God, 
24. As applied to the Chris- 
tian Church, 68. 

Hollaz, the ¢estimonium Spiritus 
Sanctt internum, 85-87. 

Holy Spirit, see Bible, Christian 
consctousness, Church, Guidance, 
Sanctification, Testimonium, and 
Witness. Bibliography, xii, 239- 
244. Books concerning disap- 
point, why, xi; what may now 
be accomplished, xii. Doctrine 
of, its importance, 96; knowl- 
edge of a development, 4, based 


60 INDEX 


in Scripture, and interpreted 
through life molded by the 
Spirit, xiii, 55. Spirit of God 


in the O. T., 13-25; a vehicle 


of monotheism, 16; N. T. teach- 
ing, 28-54; stages in the his- 
tory of doctrine, xii, 55 ff; re- 
cent thought concerning, 106- 
118; four important questions 
concerning, xiii. Charismatic 
or Kedemplive Spirit, 17-21; an 
addition to the presence of the 
immanent Spirit, 17; the su- 
preme authority for truth, 169. 
Conditions of his presence, 226- 
237; evidence of his presence, 
94, 220-225; benefits of being 


filled with, 94 f; master of his | 


own powers, 255; how grieved, 
230. Charismatic, qualifying 
for service, 17-21, 30-44, 205- 
208; promised for Messianic 
times, 19f; qualified Jesus 
Christ for his work, 37; needed 
for effectiveness in Christian 
service, 205-208;. gives effec- 
tiveness, 209 f; modes of effi- 
ciency, 209-213; their value, 
213-219; the results of real 
gifts, 218 f; special gifts and 
common gifts, 211 ff; perils of 
special gifts, 214 ff; gift of con- 
secrated natural powers, 210 f, 
215; and of a sanctified life, 
209 f, 214; of power in prayer, 
216; condition of his gifts, 231- 
234; evidence of his presence, 
225; why not given, 2360f. As 
Redemptive Spirit he bestows 


gifts resulting in redemption, 
20 f, 39; the redemptive opera- 
tions, 39-44, 129-135, 142-146; 
work in securing conversion, 
35, in preparing the world for 
accepting Christianity, 130; 
teaches men their need of sal- 
vation, 142 ff; reveals Jesus 
Christ, 142; prepares for the 
new birth, 142 ff; gives in- 
creased energy to the natural 
powers, 137f; purifies the affec- 
tions and invigorates the will, 
143 ff; evidence of his redemp- 
tive operations, 223 f. Cosmic 
Spirit, 13-17; God immanent 
in the world, 120-127; his op- 
erations the so-called laws of 
nature, 120, 123; his functions 
revealed by the phenomena of 
the physical world, 128; gives 
man his entire constitution, 123; 
and efficiency to the natural 
powers, 210 ff; which are fun- 
damental, 213; impels toward 
knowledge, 124; a force in man 
toward a normal type of being, 
121 f; normal action illustrated, 
220 ff; a preservative and ‘re- 
storative power in nature, 121; 
the source of recuperative en- 
ergy, 124; and of corrective 


_ power as regards what is ab- 


normal, 126. 


Holy Spirit as a person, 44-54, 


196-203; see Zrzzzty; personal 
acts of, 46f; personal idea fig- 


§rative in O.'T., 21 ff: 28" ime 


personal idea figurative in the 


INDEX 261 


IN dr 20 3S 'God, 48 ; the -ex- 
ecutive of deity, 47; subordi- 
nate to the Father, 49, and to 
the Son, 49 f, also coordinate, 
Sof; represents Christ, 51. 
Procession of, 64 f, rr4’f.. Work 
of, 29-44, 96, 119; author of 
revelation and Scripture, 31; 
most operations immanent,147 f ; 
access of to the soul, 130; 
makes Christ’s priestly work 
efficient, 132; carries on the 
prophetic work of Christ, 147- 
187; givesillumination of mind, 
143 ff; authenticates and inter- 
prets the Bible, 147, 169; re- 
veals truth through Christian 
history, 170; has a perpetual 
ministry of teaching, 166 f; the 
ultimate authority for the recog- 
nition of truth, 169; executes 
the kingly work of Jesus Christ, 
188-195. 

Howe, John, 98. 

Ignatius, 58. 

I]lumination, due to the Spirit, 4o, 
who interprets the Bible and 
‘develops its truths, 169; his 
method, 148-152; also by the 
development of the Christian 
consciousness, 157-164; its re- 
sults, how reached, 174; nor- 
mal method of, 175; this rarely 
seen on a large scale, 176; ob- 
stacles to,176f; common meth- 
od of, 177 f£; promised to all 
believers; 19f, 171 f, and the 
promise verified in history, 173; 
illustrated by the -formation of 


the O. T. Canon, 164 ff; condi- 
tion of, 178 f, 228 ff; how it may 
be prevented, 230; the sources 
OF; 70,.22G. 

Immanence of God, taught by the 
O. T. conception of God’s Spir- 
it, 16; exposition of, cf. 253): 
mediated by the Spirit, 120-- 
127; the relation to the doc- 
trine of the Trinity, 242. 

Individual experience, faulty, 123, 
faculties but partially  trust- 
worthy, 125. 

Individualism, mischief of, rg2 ff. 

Jabne, synod of, 164. 

Jesus Christ, qualified 
Spirit,’.37 £; sufferings of,-a 
motive to conversion, 129. 

John of Damascus, 67, 114. 

Joy, a fruit of the Spirit, 140. 

Justin Martyr, 58. 


by the 


. Judicial blindness, how expressed 


in-the OW L.,-2 5. 

Justification by faith, the material 
principle of the Reformation, 83. 

Kingdom of God, 29; defined, 
133; the invisible Church, 142, 
how established, 37, 133f, 142, 
145, 183; gives true point of 
view for life, 228, 232. 

Knowledge, relation of to life, 
141; of reality, impuls@ for, due 
to the Spirit, 124. 

Latin Church, and the Filioque, 
66f£; attitude toward the clergy 
and the holiness of the Church, 
69 f. 

Language, rise of spiritual terms, 
5; change-in, 184. 


262 


Laws of nature, the operations of 
the Spirit, 120. 

Lechler, the Trinity, 252. 

Liebner, 112: 

Life, Biblical conception of, 41; 
individual and Church, oe in 
balance by the Spirit, 194 f. 

Logic, a law of the Spirit, 226. 

Love, a fruit of the Spirit, 140. 

Luke, especially notes charisms 
of service, 38. 

Luther, found peace only by the 
witness of the Spirit, ror; op- 
posed the “enthusiasts,” 90; 
teachings of respecting . the 
Church. and - the . Word}: 73; 
respecting faith, 72, and the 
Holy Spirit, 72 ff. 

Man, a double self, 139; nature 
constituted by the Holy Spirit, 
120; normal mental action 
brings inner harmony, 120 f, and 
truth and joy, 121 f. 


Meekness, a fruit of the Spirit, 
T4O. 

Mysticism, peril in, 70; evils of, 
59-92. 


Newman, 254. 

Obedience, the condition of the 
presence of the Spirit, 226. 

Owen, John, xii, 95-97; on the 
Witness of the Spirit, roo. 

Hapdzdyntos, 45: 

Peace, a fruit of the Spirit, 140. 

Personality, twofold, 158; abnor- 
mal needs assistance outside 
nature, 126; to be redeemed 
from the center, 131. 

Ilvedpa, original meaning of, 6. 


INDEX 


Polity, church, molded by the 
Spirit, no one form adequate 
to all needs, 194. 

Power, value misjudged, 232; 
why do men fail to receive it? 
230.4; 

Prayer, a condition of sanctifying 
grace, 227; and of receiving 
illumination, 228 f, of fellowship 
between Christ and the be- 
liever, 227; value of the gift of 
power in, 216. 

Priesthood, claims of, 60, 71. 

Procession of the Spirit, 64 f; 
agreement of the Bonn Confer- . 
ence, 1144. 

Progress, nature of, 188; in ap- 
prehension of truth, 186, 218 f. 
Protestant, discussions respecting - 
the Spirit, 82; one-sided reli- — 
ance on Scripture, 91 f; theolo- 

_ gians neglected the ¢estémonium 
Spiritus Sancti internum, 88, 
and became scholastic, 92. 

Providence, Biblical idea of not 
separate from man’s redemp- 
tion, 128. 

Psychology, a law of the Spirit, 
226. 

Puritan, faith in England, 93-99; 
its declension, 9o. 

Puritans, discredited as a polit- 
ical party, 99; and Reformers, 
work of in the development of 
the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 
98 f, 101. 

Rationalism, its origin, 9o. 


Reality, sense of, how attained by 


experience, 123. 


INDEX 26 


Redeemer, his person most im- 
portant, 59 f. 

Redemption, meaning of, 132; 
the work of the Spirit, 39; in- 
cludes the body, 43. 

Redemptive phenomena verified 
im experience, 129; process 
sketched, 135-142. 

Reflection, necessary for scientific 
knowledge, 55. 

Reformation, motive for, 
material principle of, 83; com- 
pleteness of teaching respect- 
ing the Holy Spirit, 84, 9o8f, 
IOl. 

Regeneration, and conversion first 
distinguished, 83; its condition, 
227; creative and begins a new 

_ history, 158; due to the Spirit, 
39; a gift of energy to the 
human will, 137; Scriptural 
names, I3I. 

Repentance, a change of mind, 
137, 

Richard of St. Victor, 112. 

Ritschl, Albrecht, 111, 249 f. 

Roman Catholic teaching, 81, 182. 

Ruach, linguistic development of, 
6 ff. 

Sanctification, due to the Holy 

Spirit, 39f; his specific and 

peculiar function, 12, 42, 130; 

its nature, 132; gradual and 

need of, 138; how wrought by 
the Spirit, 42 f, 144f; a battle, 
how won, 139f; conditions of 

the Spirit’s work, 227-231. 

_ Sanity, promoted by the gift of 

the Spirit, 218. 


eee. 


Oo 


Sartorius, I12. 

Schleiermacher, roof. 

Scholasticism, origin of, go. 

Scientific theological knowledge, 
how attained, 55. 

Self-mastery, a fruit of the Spirit, 
140. 

Sentiment, 163. . 

Sin, not to be harbored, 228, nor 
to be thought of with relish, 
230. 

Spiration, 66f. 

Spirit of God, an evil, 24f. 

Stevens, -Prof:.G, B:, 11 f. 

Subconscious mental action, 149 f. 

Sufferings of Christ and his dis- 
ciples, motive power of, 120. 

Synergistic controversy, 83. 

Spiritus Sancti in- 
ternum, 74, 166; statement of 
Calvin, 78; definition of Hol- 
laz, 85f£; value of doctrine, 
108. 

Trent, council of, 81. 

Trinity, Economical, 119; 
whole deity engaged in the re- 
demptive work, 52f; the doc- 
trine notin the O.~T:, P5i; 2 
natural development from the 
incarnation, 242; fundamental 
to Christianity, 54; grounds for 
the doctrine, the society in the 
deity, his absoluteness, 
changeable nature, and eternal 
Fatherhood and Sonship, 196- 
£99; also ine his love,” 112 ff, 
198 ff, 251 f; .perhaps a neces- 
sary mode of absolute being, 
201f; limits to our power of 


Testim onium 


the 


un- 


264 sae INDEX 


conceiving the facts, 2orf; 
philosophical and_ practical 
value of the doctrine, z2o2f. 
Various statements from Cal- 
vin, 74; Hegel, 111 f, ay 
Hodge, 251f; Kaftan, 250; 
Lechler, 252; Liebner, 112; 
Ritschl, trof; Richard of St. 
Mictor, 112; Sartorius, 112; 
Schleiermacher, 109 f. 

Truth, how attained, r20f; diffi- 
culty of seeing, 176. . 

Turretin, 83. 

Vis Medicatrix, 121, 125f. 

Wesley, John, and the Witness 
of the Spirit, roz f. 

Wessel, John, 70. 


Westminster Confession, pro- 
posed revision, 116 ff; the wit- 
ness of the Spirit, 102, 245 f. 

Will, energy of due to the Spirit, 
122; unable to correct its own 
abnormal attitude, 126, 136; 
needs aid from the Spirit, 127; 
strengthened for conversion by 
regenerating grace, 137; rela- 
tion of to knowledge and to 
the fruits of the Spirit, rqr. 

Witness of the Spirit, roo-ros, 
152-157; received by the Re- 
formers, 72. Theories of, aot 
a personal communication from 
God, 155 ff. 

Zwickau prophets, o1. 


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